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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



Primary Teacher 



WITH 



HELPS AND EXERCISES 




MARTHA VAN MARTER 



INTRODUCTION BY 

Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, D.D. 



Better a child in God's great house 

Than the king of all the earth.— MacDonald 




NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON 

CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS 

1893 



Jo^iTJ 



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$ 



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Copyright, 1893, by 

HUNT & EATON, 

New York. 



Electrotyped, printed, and bound bv 

HUNT & EATON, 

150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



LC Control Number 




tm P 96 027855 




INTRODUCTION. 



THE Sunday school workers are the cream of 
the church membership, in intelligence, in 
earnestness, in effort, and in self-denial. There is 
no department of Christian activity where are 
found so many devoted people as in the Sunday 
school. 

What the Sunday school workers are to the 
church the primary teachers, as a body, are to the 
Sunday school — its most enthusiastic, eager, and 
self-denying members. No doubt there are in- 
competent and inactive primary teachers, but they 
are less in number, proportionally, than in any 
other department of the Sunday school. It is the 
experience of every leader in the Sunday school 
cause, that the primary teachers appear in stronger 
force at the convention, the institute, and the assem- 
bly than the representatives of any other depart- 
ment, in proportion to their numbers ; that they 
are more eager for methods and plans of instruc- 
tion, will listen to more addresses, will ask more 
questions, and will give more time to the work 
than any other body of teachers. 

The reasons for this earnestness are manifest. 
The primary teacher deals with ardent young 
natures, responsive and affectionate. They manifest 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

their interest and their delight more than children 
of a larger growth ; and their interest awakens the 
zeal of their teacher. Moreover, the primary 
teacher must of necessity have her lesson thoroughly 
studied and prepared. It is desirable for all teach- 
ers to be thoroughly equipped for the lesson, but 
it is absolutely necessary for the primary teacher. 
She cannot call out the lesson by questions from 
her class ; she cannot study it with her class ; she 
must teach it to her class out of her own store of 
knowledge and tact. For these reasons, primary 
teachers are ever on the alert for new methods, 
suggestive hints, and helps in their work. 

We welcome, therefore, any new book that 
promises assistance to primary teachers, for we 
know that it will be eagerly received and read. 
We welcome especially this book, which is the 
result of many years' work in the primary depart- 
ment, and presents methods which have been 
tested in practice. 

Its author has written lesson helps for primary 
teachers for the past ten years, and is a lover of 
little people, a skilled teacher, and a practiced 
writer. We believe, therefore, that her book, which 
has been written in response to an urgent demand, 
will be found helpful to all primary teachers and 
to those who instruct little children, in the home 
as well as in the Sunday school. 

Jesse L. Hurlbut. 
New York, January 10, 1893. 



THE 
PRIMARY TEACHER'S PRAYER. 



IP to me sweet childhood looketh, 
Heart, and mind, and soul awake ; 
Teach me of thy ways, Father ! 
For sweet childhood's sake. 

In their young hearts, soft and tender, 
Guide my hand good seed to sow, 

That its blossoming may praise thee, 
"Whereso'er they go. 

Give to me a cheerful spirit, 

That my little flock may see 
It is good and pleasant service 

To be taught of thee. 

Father, order all my footsteps 

To direct my daily way, 
That, in following me, the children 

May not go astray. 

Let thy holy counsel lead me ; 

Let thy light before me shine ; 
That they may not stumble over 

Word or deed of mine. 

Draw us hand and hand to Jesus, 
For his word's sake, unforgot, 

*' Let the little ones come to me, 
And forbid them not." 

— Unknown. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Teacher — Who and What ? 9 

Class Organization 16 

Ways and Means 28 

Methods and Devices 37 

In the Class Room 48 

The Class Singing 57 

The Class Praying 65 

The Class Working 72 

Week Day Work 80 

Child Festivals 87 

The Children's Meeting, or Junior League.... 98 

Temperance Teaching in the Primary Class... 108 



HELPS AND EXERCISES. 



Helps in Temperance Teaching 119 

Christmas Helps 127 

Easter Helps 132 

Miscellaneous Exercises 141 



The Primary Teacher. 



CHAPTER L 
THE TEACHER-WHO AND WHAT? 

I love thy men and women, Lord, 

The children round thy door. — MacDonald. 

A LITTLE girl three years of age went to Sun- 
■**• day school for the first time. She had been 
taught at home to pray to Jesus, and in her thought 
he stood as the dearest and best Friend of little 
children, a real person, and yet the great God of 
heaven and earth. 

In the Sunday school to which she went that 
day the primary class was taught by a good man 
whom the children dearly loved. 

The little maid went home and eagerly poured 
out the joy of her heart. Suddenly she paused, 
and after a moment's silence said, u And O, mamma, 
I saw Jesus, and he smiled at me ! " 

The dear child saw kindness, gentleness, love, 
and she said, " It is Jesus ! " If she had seen 
coldness, impatience, lack of sympathy, could she 
have associated them with the gracious Saviour? 

The primary teacher stands before the children 
in Christ's stead ! 



10 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

When Tommy and Mary set out for the Sunday 
school " to learn about Jesus," they have a right 
to expect that their teacher is acquainted with him. 
They expect to hear how good he is and what he 
wants- lu& Uille^children to do that-tLs.^ nray please 
him. They do not put the thought into words, but 
it lies deep down in the little heart, and it is both 
the privilege and duty of the teacher to show them 
the Saviour they need to see. 

But the Christ must live in the teacher's heart if 
he is to be represented to the little ones. Shams 
are of no avail with children. We may hang veils 
before our real selves with our elders, but not with 
the babies. The dear truth-loving little souls are 
not yet far enough away from paradise to be daz- 
zled by false lights, and so they go straight to the 
hard bottom of facts. 

The child lover is generally sought as the teacher 
of the primary class. This is quite right, provided 
the love is the true love, which is sacrifice rather 
than sentiment. There are child lovers, so called, 
who delight in the unspeakable grace and charm of 
childhood, but who think little of the immortal 
Being behind the bright eyes and rosy cheeks and 
dewy lips of the darlings. 

Such are flesh and blood lovers, and though 
they sometimes find their way into the primary 
class, they seldom remain long. 

We once visited a primary class in the Sunday 
school of a prominent city church. The teacher 
was a beautiful woman, charmingly dressed, and 



THE TEACHER — WHO AND WHAT.' II 

the children evidently came from homes of wealth 
and refinement. 

The teacher called the little ones by various en- 
dearing names, and in many ways sought to impress 
upon them the fact that she loved them. '" Now, 
my darlings, you will be quiet just to please me, I 
am sure ; " and ; * I shall be so happy if you will all 
sing sweetly ; " and " These ladies who have come 
to visit you will enjoy hearing you recite the 
Golden Text." The children seemed strangely 
listless and indifferent to all these solicitations, but 
the change was marked when a plain looking lady 
visitor spoke a few earnest words about the Lord's 
love and tender care for little children ! Little 
eyes brightened and little voices rang out in a 
sweet song of praise when the visitor said : "Jesus 
hears you when you sing. Will you not make him 
glad now with your songs ? " 

The true teacher of the little ones will have 
much to say of our Lord, and very little of self. 
The children will be loved first of all for Christ's 
sake, and because he loves them. 

And they will be taught, because the truth will 
lie deep in the heart of the teacher, that the way 
into the kingdom is through " the conquest of self- 
seeking egoism,'' as Froebel so well expressed it. 

It is a beautiful and wonderful work to which 
the primary teacher is called. Who is sufficient ? 
For nothing is so tender as the soul of a little child ! 
Nothing can so easily be hurt by careless, ignorant 
handling. Froebel says : " Losses which have 



12 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

taken place in the first stage of life — in which the 
heart-leaves, the germ-leaves, of the whole being 
unfold — are never made up." 

Who and what shall the primary teacher be ? 

Man or woman, young or old, married or single, 
rich or poor, learned or unlearned — these accidents 
matter little. But it does matter greatly u<hat the 
primary teacher is ! 

The teacher of the little ones must be one who 
"loves God and every little child." This is indis- 
pensable to success. But there must be wisdom as 
well as love — the wisdom that comes down from 
above. As we follow the teachings of our Lord, 
we see more and more clearly that the child heart 
is the wise and loving heart. The primary teacher 
then must become as a little child, loving, simple- 
hearted, teachable. 

Such a one may not be skilled in normal meth- 
ods ; it may be impossible to mingle with other 
teachers and catch their spirit : there may even be 
great odds to contend against as to surroundings 
and interest and sympathy; but if there be indeed 
the obedient child heart, there need be no fear of 
failure and defeat. 

The disciples were astonished when Jesus taught 
them that they must become as little children. 
They thought that the little children must become 
like themselves ! Not so, said the great Teacher. 
The children are true, humble, loving, and obedient. 
They belong to the heavenly kingdom. But you — 
you have grown self-centered, wise in your own con- 



THE TEACHER — WHO AND WHAT.' I 3 

ceit, false in your standards, unloving, disobedient. 
You need to come into the child's world. 

The primary teacher must have the child heart, 
dwell in the child world, and be able to " think as 
a child." 

One who hears the divine call to this delicate 
work need not shrink back because of the require- 
ments. He who calls will surely furnish. And, 
while human helps are much to be desired, the 
only indispensable furnishing after all must come 
from the holy Teacher who himself became a little 
child for our sakes. 

This is the training that must not be omitted. 

But the truly called teacher will recognize the 
fact that God helps those who help themselves. 
and will be wise to seek outward preparation while 
waiting for the inner baptism. 

Many years ago a Sunday school meeting was 
called in a country village in England to consider 
the question of forming an infant class. There 
were plenty of little ones in great need of religious 
training, but, alas ! a teacher could not be found. 
Some could not give the needed time to the work : 
others did not "know how to get on with little 
children." while others clearly perceived and 
frankly owned their unfitness for the work. The 
matter was about to be postponed indefinitely, 
when, to the astonishment of all, the village black- 
smith rose, and said simply, '"' I'll try it, please 
God." 

He was known to be a good man, but of all 



14 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

others he seemed the least adapted to this line of 
work. His voice was loud and harsh, his manner 
uncouth, and moreover he was not known to have 
the power to attract children which is often found 
in people with a rough exterior. 

The blacksmith knew very well that he was not 
fitted for the work. He had not ventured to offer 
himself until all other resources had failed. But 
the need had been laid upon his heart, and he 
dared not let his unfitness stand in the way of the 
Lord's work. 

So this untaught man did the one wise and true 
thing : he put himself i?i t?'aini?ig. He borrowed 
some children's books ; he read and thought and 
prayed. He studied Bible stories long and pa- 
tiently. Then putting away the book he wrote 
out the stories in his own words. Early and late 
he toiled. Months passed, and still the brawny 
student was at work, making ready to obey his 
Lord's call. 

One bleak November day some little children 
stood at the smithy door watching the sparks fly 
from the anvil. By and by they ventured in. The 
smith began to speak to them, and his own heart 
glowed as he saw that his words found their way 
to the young hearts. He felt that his long labor 
had not been in vain, and that day witnessed the 
beginning of the blacksmith's direct work for the 
neglected little ones. 

It is not surprising that this man came to be 
known as one of the most successful primary teach- 



THE TEACHER — WHO AND WHAT? I 5 

ers in all England. Hundreds of little ones found 
in him a friend and a guide into heavenly paths. 
And this because he obeyed the call, and put him- 
self in training. 

This is a somewhat extreme case. In our day 
of abundant "helps" the teacher hearing the 
divine call will find sympathetic encouragement at 
the very outset ! But we give the extreme case to 
show how truly our God opens "the way in the 
sea " to one who is minded to go forward. " Only 
be thou strong and very courageous," dear teacher- 
friend, so honored of God as to be called to a work 
like this ! 



CHAPTER II. 
CLASS ORGANIZATION. 

" The first six years are as full of advancement as the six years 
of creation." 

A HUNDRED and fifty in the infant class 
to-day !" said the good superintendent of 
the Sunday school, beaming with satisfaction. 
"Yes, our school is certainly growing!" 

There was no doubt that the infant class was 
growing. The little seats were crowded with 
wriggling, uneasy children, getting their first im- 
pressions of order and good behavior in the house 
of God. And it is said that early impressions are 
not easily effaced. 

The room was a large, bright one, but badly 
ventilated. The day was cold, and it would not 
do to open the windows and let the wintry wind 
fall directly upon the heads of the children. So 
the warm, vitiated air was breathed over and over 
again, with such results as might be expected. 

The "infants" were of varying ages, from three 
to ten years. Here a group of a dozen or so were 
being vastly entertained by the pranks of a jolly 
baby of three. In another corner of the room 
still another infant was weeping and rubbing his 



CLASS ORGANIZATION. 1 7 

eyes with his fat fists, while a dozen or more were 
giving due attention to his small woes. 

Over this way a bright-eyed girl was the center 
of a half dozen eager listeners, who were hearing 
all about the pretty new hat ; while over that 
way boys were elbowing and pushing and scram- 
bling, making vain endeavors meanwhile to get 
attention from the teachers, that they might make 
complaints in due form. 

But where were the teachers ? They were on 
duty, and doing all they could to hold the atten- 
tion of the children. One was teaching the lesson, 
the other moving about endeavoring to quiet dis- 
turbances and secure order ; for while she was at 
the front an insurrection broke out in the rear, and 
vice versa. 

And yet the lady who was trying to tell the sweet 
Gospel story was no novice. She had evidently 
both gifts and graces for this kind of work. She 
was sympathetic, enthusiastic, and capable. 

What was lacking ? 

A proper classification and necessary help. 

The children were not sinners above others, 
nor was their teacher a failure. The difficulty 
lay in the attempt to do what very few people 
can do. 

A kindergarten teacher of thorough training and 
wide experience cannot do justice to more than 
twenty-five children ; more frequently the limit is 
placed at twenty. In public schools it is thought 
unwise to place more than fifty under the care of 



1 8 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

one primary teacher. Why is it thought that a 
teacher in a Sunday school primary class, who 
has to deal with the very loftiest subjects, can 
properly handle from one to two or even three 
hundred children ? 

Why may not a class like this be made into three 
or four divisions ? The teacher who cannot teach 
a hundred and fifty may be able to do excellent 
work with a third or fourth of that number. Or, 
still better, the " little class " system may be 
adopted. 

This brings us to a very important question. 

How shall we most successfully organize the 
primary class ? 

Two methods are in vogue, each having its own 
special advantages. The more common, perhaps 
we may say the more popular, of the two places 
the children, be they few or many, Under the care 
of a superintendent, who secures two or more as- 
sistants, an organist, a secretary, and possibly a 
librarian and a general helper. The superintend- 
ent conducts the exercises and teaches the lesson, 
while the assistants serve in their allotted places. 

This method, especially when the class is large, 
means hard, exhausting work, and a general sense 
of duty left undone, which is always depressing. 
The burden falls upon the superintendent, of ne- 
cessity. The assistants can assist, but the superin- 
tendent must plan, direct, and see that the work is 
actually done. Think what is to be accomplished 
in one short hour: Lesson teaching, singing, roll 



CLASS ORGANIZATION. 1 9 

call, teaching Bible verses, giving out papers and 
cards, gathering pennies, adjusting strings and 
buttons, settling childish disputes, distributing li- 
brary books, keeping order, etc., etc. The little 
children, of all others, need special attention. 

Freddy, who has learned the Golden Text, wants 
teacher to hear him recite it, and feels defrauded 
if this cannot be. Jenny is rejoicing over the 
coming of a baby sister, and wants teacher to re- 
joice with her ; while Alice perhaps comes with 
little heart full of sorrow because the angels have 
taken baby away, and wants a word of loving 
sympathy from teacher. 

The superintendent would be only too glad to 
enter into all the little childish confidences, but 
sixty minutes make an hour, and, besides, there is 
a limit to one's powers of endurance. What won- 
der that the teacher sighs hopelessly, looking out 
upon the hundred or more little ones to be faith- 
fully visited in their homes. 

Yet this system has its advantages. The atten- 
tion is concentrated in one direction, or should be. 
It is easily adapted to unfavorable surroundings, 
and many teachers think that better order can be 
secured by having one controlling mind to which 
all are subject. 

The other method, strongly advocated by some 
of the wisest and most advanced primary teachers, 
breaks up the primary class into little groups of 
ten or less. A teacher is placed over each group, 
and these teachers relieve the superintendent of 



20 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

much routine work. They call the roll, gather the 
pennies, teach the Golden Text where it has not 
been taught at home, give out papers, cards, and 
books, and perhaps have a short talk with their 
classes about the lesson story before the more for- 
mal teaching of the lesson by the superintendent. 
The children are thus brought into close contact 
with a teacher who can attend to little wants and 
come to know each one as a little individual. 
She can learn faults, and so know how to correct 
wisely. She can give the loving touch to little hands 
and hearts if she be herself in living connection 
with the great heart of Love. She can look after 
absentees, visit the sick, and acquaint the super- 
intendent with special cases needing special at- 
tention, and in many ways can do work that the 
most active, tireless, and faithful superintendent 
cannot do. 

The little class system deserves a trial for these 
if for no other reasons. By it 

Good order is promoted. 

Time is saved. 

Children are personally reached. 

Every teacher knows how spontaneously dis- 
order springs up during the gathering of the 
pennies, the distribution of papers, etc. With 
this system teachers are on the spot to preserve 
order. 

All the incidentals of which mention has been 
made take time, and somebody must give it. Ten 
teachers can do it more quickly than one or two. 



CLASS ORGANIZATION. 21 

The personal touch is a matter of more impor- 
tance than we think, perhaps. " I love my teacher ; 
she smiled at me," said a little girl who went but 
two or three times to Sunday school, and then 
went to heaven. 

Said an earnest teacher, dissatisfied with the re- 
sults of her teaching, " I would like to try the little 
class plan, if I only knew how to go about it." 

To such, an experience worth more than many 
theories is offered : 

The class was not large, but growing. An attendance of 
sixty was thought very good. It was easy enough to hold 
little eyes and ears during the teaching of the lesson, but the 
roll call was a trial time, and so of other exercises during 
which most of the class were necessarily unoccupied. Many 
considerations, some of which are specified above, urged the- 
change. The superintendent of the main school said, " Try 
it ; try anything you please. The responsibility rests with 
you." 

We were told that it was difficult to find Sunday school 
teachers. How six, the modest number aimed at, could be 
secured was a question. But they were found, furnished with 
class books, and set to work. They called the roll, collected 
pennies, taught Infant Catechism, heard Golden Texts recited, 
and kept order. They enjoyed the work, and when after a few 
weeks it became necessary to form new classes, teachers were 
not so hard to find. Young mothers came with their little 
ones, and in several instances the very best and most de- 
voted teachers have come from this class. Within a year 
there were twelve teachers, earnest, faithful, child loving, who 
gathered classes of ten or fifteen around them, and drilled on 
questions and answers and Golden or Tiny Text, and told 
lesson story, with opportunities for personal contact that the 
superintendent could not have in any large degree. They 



22 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

also kept records, gave out papers, looked after books, vis- 
ited, attended to needy cases, and did other much needed 
work which must otherwise have been neglected. 

You will see from this one experience that the 
class grew in numbers. That is not an unusual 
outcome of the change from the old to the new. 
In making the change it is the first step that costs. 
If you cannot secure the full number of assistants 
needed at first take what you can get. Perhaps 
you will need to give your organist a class. Let it 
have a place as near the instrument as possible. 
Your secretary will consent to teach a little class, 
and also look after the general roll book. For this 
must be kept, giving a complete list of names and 
residences. Each teacher has her own class book, 
and at the close of each session any addition to, or 
withdrawal from, the school should be reported to 
the secretary for the benefit of the superintendent. 
A five-minute gathering of teachers at the close 
of the session is desirable, to report sickness or 
special cases of any sort. 

A wise discretion is needed in classifying and 
seating the children. It would seem that the least 
ones should always be brought to the front, and, 
while this is desirable, it is better not to make it a 
rigid rule ; indeed, it is best not to make it a rule 
at all. The day may come when you will find it 
expedient to bring that uneasy class, not blessed 
with the very wisest and best teacher, to the place 
of honor, nearest your desk or table. 

At the beginning you will find it difficult to 



CLASS ORGANIZATION. 23 

classify the children to your own satisfaction or to 
theirs. Nelly, aged ten, must have five-year-old 
brother Willy at her side — " Mamma said so." 
And that pair of mischievous girl friends will be 
sure to protest against being placed in different 
classes. You will find a demand for both tact and 
grace, but promise a rearrangement at the close of 
the quarter. By that time you and the teachers 
will see where changes would be desirable. Then, 
too, is the time to permanently place newcomers 
who often want to sit with friends while the feeling 
of strangeness is upon them. 

When your class reaches the three-figure mark 
you will find the need of a general assistant. If 
your organist, released from class teaching, will 
consent to do this, utilize her by all means. There 
are little papers to fold, library books to attend to, 
pennies to gather, class books to look after, cards 
and symbol-gifts to place in the hands of teach- 
ers for distribution, and visitors to meet and greet, 
possibly during the teaching of the lesson. 

And now you are ready to ask " What is left for 
the superintendent to do?" 

Work, and plenty of it ! 

A program, which, with variations, has been used 
with good success, is given below : 

2:30-2:35. Praise exercise, song, and prayer. 

2:35-2:40. Roll call (by teachers) and collection. 

2:40-2:45. Singing, and Golden Text (by teachers). 

2:45-2:50. Creed, Commandments, or books of Bible, fol- 
lowed by chanting twenty-third Psalm or 
Beatitudes. 



24 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

2:50-2:55. Review of last lesson. 

2:55-3:03. Lesson story explained (by teachers). 

3:03-3:18. Motion song or quieting exercise, followed by 
lesson teaching from superintendent. 

3:18-3:20. Singing. 

3:20-3:25. Golden Chain Texts, or temperance talk, fol- 
lowed by singing temperance song. 

3:25-3:30. Closing song, echo prayer, and Mizpah. 

Dismissed by classes, receiving papers at the door. 

It will be seen by a study of this program that 
the superintendent will not be left to fold her hands 
in idleness. The few moments between the review 
and the lesson teaching profitably spent by teach- 
ers in telling the lesson story with the aid of slate 
and pencil or pictorial lesson paper, will make it 
possible to come to this exercise without the sense 
of hurry and fatigue which must be felt by the sup- 
erintendent who has to do all the teaching. This 
is important, for in this fifteen minutes the spiritual 
truth taught in the lesson must be illustrated and 
impressed. 

"But how," some one asks, "shall we learn to 
know the names of our little ones if we give up 
the roll call ? and shall we not lose our hold upon 
the children by sharing the teaching with others ?" 

No ; always and everywhere, you who stand at 
the desk and teach the spiritual truths of the les- 
son will be "teacher," loved and looked up to ! 

But how to learn the names when the class is 
large is a grave question. Of course all the help- 
ers in the land should not shut you off from the 
sweet privilege of knowing your little ones through 



CLASS ORGANIZATION. 2$ 

meeting them in the homes, but this takes time, to 
begin with, and then the names of newcomers 
must be learned as well. 
Here is a suggestion : 

The half hour before Sunday school spent in the class room is 
of untold value to the primary teacher. First, see if the room 
is in order. The sexton cannot always be trusted. If seats 
are movable, see that they are neatly arranged. Open the 
windows. You will find a use for the fresh air by and by, as 
you try to win and hold the attention of your little ones. 
Make your table attractive. Have the spread (a bright one) 
hung straight, the Bible (as big a one as you can get) laid in 
the center, the box for the pennies a pretty one, and whatever 
may be upon the table in orderly array. The vase may hold 
but a single flower, but that will have its voice, and every bit 
of home brightness and beauty that you can put in your room 
will be a silent teacher. 

Now you are ready to greet the early comers with a smile 
and cheery word, which may go far toward making a place in 
the little heart for the truth you teach ! Call each one by 
name. Listen to the eager questions, and check, advise, or 
comfort, as the case may demand. Willy has been sick. 
Whisper softly in his ear, " You and I will thank God for 
making you well, will we not ? " Ask Mary if baby brother is 
well. Tell Hatty that you are coming to see her soon (and 
keep your word!), and in this loving ministry your half hour 
will slip away so quickly that it will be to you a busy half 
hour. 

A primary class library is greatly to be desired, 
especially if the children come from homes in 
which reading matter is scarce. The simple Chris- 
tian stories will be read aloud by some older mem- 
ber of the family to please the little one, and so 
great good may be done. 



26 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Mrs. Knox, with her usual practical sense, sug- 
gests a plan for distributing library books which is 
to be commended for its simplicity and thorough- 
ness. Any teacher can manage this without diffi- 
culty : 

On the first Sunday after the school is organized give each 
teacher six books, one for each of the six scholai-s in the class. 
Let them be kept in the class six weeks, which will give every 
scholar a chance to read every book. On the seventh Sunday 
let the librarian, who is the superintendent's assistant, take 
the six books in class No. I, and give them to class No. 2, 
and of No. 2 to No. 3, and so on round the school. On the 
thirteenth Sunday, which will be the first of the next quarter, 
let the librarian take all the books to the library and give 
none out. Then start again and give different sets to each 
class from those they had before. The teacher charges the 
books to the scholars on the class books each Sunday. Every 
time a change of sets of books is made from class to class the 
teachers remain a few moments after school, and give their 
numbers to the librarian, who charges them to each teacher 
on her account book. 

Mrs. Knox would assign but six pupils to a class, 
hence, she uses this number. But ten or twelve 
books could be equally well put in one set. 

You who are thinking of the difficulty of secur- 
ing teachers for the Sunday school are waiting to 
say, " But where are we to find our assistants ? " 

Get permission to go into the adult classes of 
girls. Sit down and talk with the teacher and the 
girls together. As a rule the selfish and frivolous 
and unloving will not listen to you. But you will 
find sweet, young hearts, longing to be of use, who 
will hail the opportunity. Child loving, young 



CLASS ORGANIZATION. 27 

Christian girls and young mothers who can bring 
their little ones to the Sunday school make the 
best teachers generally. 

They will need to be instructed, and this will be 
a part of your work, dear superintendent. But 
what an opportunity will be yours for training in 
Christian work ! 

Little children cannot be led to the Saviour in 
masses any more than grown people can be, and 
we know that the very great majority of conver- 
sions result from direct personal effort. When the 
children leave the primary class they are put into 
small classes at once. Why ? Because the Sun- 
day school aims at the conversion of the young, 
and it is deemed wiser and better to place each 
child under the care of a teacher who can study 
each case and personally lead each child. And 
this is just the work we want to inspire our assist- 
ants to do by God's help ! Let us rejoice in our 
opportunity ! 



CHAPTER III. 

WAYS AND MEANS. 

Beauty cannot create a new heart, but it can greatly change the 
disposition. — W. T. Harris. 

A PRIMARY class can be successfully taught in 
**■ a corner of the chinch, or in the gallery, or 
in a dismal basement room which never sees the 
light of the sun ; but no such thing should ever be 
allowed, if it be at all possible to avoid it. 

The church can better afford to forego carpets, 
chandeliers, and frescoes, than good, tasteful ac- 
commodations for her little ones, so soon to be 
her responsible workers. Here in the primary 
school, in a far greater degree than we think, are 
church tastes awakened, church habits formed, 
and church love kindled and directed. Let the 
Sunday school nest be a delightful place, and the 
little birds will not be likely to fly far from the 
church home. 

Sometimes there is a feeling that too much is re- 
quired for the little ones. "What difference does 
it make about the babies?" was asked in the 
teachers' meeting, and the question was like a 
dash of cold water upon the love and enthusiasm 
of the primary teacher, showing as it did how little 



WAYS AND MEANS. 29 

sense there was of the real importance of her 
work. 

11 Ten teachers in the infant class ! " said another 
in the same teachers' meeting. u A clear waste of 
time and material. Two is enough. Little classes 
indeed ! Why, the whole thing is a little class ! " 

Yes, a little class of a hundred or so wide-awake 
children who are here, in many cases, to take their 
bias for life. 

What is needed that the best work may be done 
in the primary class ? 

Not that,good work may be done; that can be 
wrought out anywhere. But the best, the work 
that will bring the most glory to our Christ and 
the most blessing to the world. 

First of all a separate room is to be desired. If 
this cannot be had, then a heavy curtain or a high 
screen should be used to secure some degree of 
privacy. 

The room should by all means be bright and 
sunny. Little children are especially susceptible 
to cheerful surroundings. Good light, good air, 
and good Gospel belong together. 

It should be a generous size. The well-taught 
class is quite sure to increase in numbers, and 
where crowding is there is confusion and tumult. 

By all means let the floor be level, and give the 
children comfortable seats. Little chairs are the 
best. They can be bought for five dollars, or less, 
a dozen. If these cannot be had insist upon low 
benches, the prettier the better. 



30 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

A blackboard of some sort is a necessity. The 
best for the average primary class is not a large 
one, and stands on a light easel which may easily 
be moved. Blackboards may be had anywhere 
from three to twelve dollars. 

A sweet-toned piano or organ, covered with a 
pretty spread, should stand near the teacher's table 
or desk. A bright carpet on the floor, pretty pic- 
tures on the walls, a bookcase, and a clock are all 
to be desired to make glad the hearts of both 
teacher and child. 

But how are all these things to be secured ? you 
are saying. 

Happily the day has dawned in which the im- 
portance of first teachings is coming to be gener- 
ally recognized. There is a spirit of progress 
abroad in the churches, and it is not so difficult to 
secure cooperation in advanced plans for primary 
work as in former years. 

The point of chief importance is that the 
teacher shall clearly understand the needs of the 
work, and patiently, but definitely, make them 
known. 

A large outlay of money is not always necessary. 
A little skill, a good deal of imagination, and a de- 
gree of perseverance will work wonders in the 
barest room. 

Another " experience " may be interesting and 
suggestive. 

The " Infant Class," as it was called, met in the 
large audience room of the church. Half a dozen 



WAYS AND MEANS. 3 1 

of the pews on either side of the middle aisle, 
just in front of the pulpit, were filled Sunday after 
Sunday, by bright little beings, who played at hide 
and seek, improvised low seats by piling up hymn 
books and Bibles on the floor, and otherwise dis- 
ported themselves during the lesson hour. 

The new teacher said that a room for the class 
was indispensable, and a barren room in the old 
church, which did duty as a chapel in the rear of 
the fine new church, was placed at her disposal. 

The room was long and narrow, with six large 
windows, admitting an abundance of sun and air, 
and with an expanse of white wall that dazzled the 
eyes of beholders. 

Some little wooden benches, various in length 
and height, that had been used in other days, were 
produced, together with an unpainted wooden 
table for the teacher's use. Part of the floor was 
covered with a red carpet, not unpleasing to the 
eye, carefully pieced out with carpet of a vivid 
green. A picture of the bishops — a number of 
large men represented in a very small way — and 
another engraving, a deathbed scene, were sup- 
posed to adorn the walls, while a creaking, groan- 
ing organ in one corner of the room filled up the 
measure of dreariness. 

In this room scores of beauty loving little chil- 
dren gathered, many of whom came out of homes 
dark with poverty and sin ; and the teacher did 
wish that the Sunday school room in which they 
met to sing and pray and learn about the beauty 



32 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

and blessedness of the good and true, might be 
more suggestive of heavenly delights. 

But the treasury was low — it always was — and it 
was useless to ask for an ''appropriation," since 
there was nothing to appropriate. Some said, 
"Get up a concert, and have the little ones per- 
form. The parents will be sure to come, and you 
can make quite a sum of money." 

What! Coin the modesty and sweetness of these 
unspoiled little children into money for any pur- 
pose whatsoever ? No, not if the room went bare 
of ornament forever ! And so that matter was 
settled. 

But little by little ideas began to take shape 
which did not involve much outlay of time or 
money. Assistant teachers were interested in the 
project of beautifying the room ; small donations 
began to come in, and now the sexton brought out 
remnants enough of red carpet to make it possible 
to banish the green. A friend sent a pretty red 
table cover. The dreary pictures w r ere removed, 
and their places filled with pictures of child life, 
birds, flowers, and Scripture mottoes, also sent in 
by friends who wanted to help when they learned 
what was being done. 

A beautiful picture of the Saviour blessing little 
children was found. It formed the center of a 
beautiful banner w T hich had been rolled up, put 
away, and forgotten. This covered a large space 
on the staring wall, and was looked upon as a 
treasure trove. 



WAYS AND MEANS. 33 

One day the teachers met by appointment, and 
some bright material was produced which was to be 
cut up into draperies for the unadorned windows. 
Some cheap scarlet and yellow fringe finished 
them, and the six windows were dressed at a trifling 
expense. The organ was retuned and oiled, so 
that it looked and sounded new again. The 
benches, freshly painted, were assorted and ar- 
ranged with something like uniformity ; some little 
articles of ornament for the table and walls were 
disposed of, and then all was ready for the surprise 
and delight of the children. 

And it did not fail to be forthcoming ! The gay 
curtains and the pretty pictures won every little 
eye, and the increase of interest in and love for the 
Sunday school repaid the teachers many times 
over for their outlay of time and effort. 

The actual expense in money was but a few dol- 
lars ; but of course thought and heart had to be 
given as well, and who so well able to give these 
as the loving hearted teacher of the little ones ? 

The large colored designs illustrating the Inter- 
national lessons are of great use in the primary 
class. The Leaf Cluster, published by the Metho- 
dist Book Concern, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, 
at $5 per annum, is not only a help in teaching the 
lesson, but may be utilized in decorating the room, 
after having served its first purpose. 

A beautiful frieze for the wall can be easily 
made, which will also be very useful. The pictures, 
pasted together in a long roll, may occasionally be 



34 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

used at the close of the quarter to enliven the re- 
view. Groups of such as are of permanent interest 
may be arranged on the wall for reference. It is 
often a help in teaching the lesson to have an il- 
lustration at hand. The children will soon learn 
to feel that these silent teachers on the walls are 
speaking to the?n from Sunday to Sunday. 

In these days of symbol gifts, of cheap and 
beautiful Scripture cards, of charming picture pa- 
pers illustrating the lessons, there seems little to be 
desired in the way of requisites for the ^primary 
class. Teachers should not provide these in such 
variety as to obscure their value. One really good 
thing is worth several of the commonplace imita- 
tions that flood the market. 

There is one requisite to the well-furnished 
primary room of which mention has not been made. 
That is the bright faced, happy voiced, pleasant 
mannered teacher. We once visited a primary 
class in which the children, about thirty or forty 
in number, looked and acted like melancholy little 
men and women. No wonder. The room had 
but one window, and the children sat with their 
backs toward that. Not a hint of beauty or grace 
was to be seen on walls or table, and the very 
gloomiest object of all was the teacher — face, voice, 
dress, and manner. She was robed from head to 
foot in dismalest crape and bombazine. Not the 
faint dawn of a smile appeared upon her sad face 
as she spoke to the children or looked at them. 
The atmosphere of the room was heavy with a 



WAYS AND MEANS. 35 

weight that the little hearts could not understand, 
and they sat in listless dejection waiting for the 
welcome moment of release. 

Whether we can have a pretty room or not, we 
can carry brightness and cheer in face and voice to 
the little people who wait for it, and whose hearts 
are chilled if they are denied it. Let us teach by 
look and tone, as well as by word, that to know 
Jesus is to be happy. 

Is there danger of laying too much stress upon 
such small matters as surroundings ? Listen : 

In a Southern city, during a time of great mor- 
tality, a very wicked man lay dying. A kind clergy- 
man making his rounds found him out and spoke 
to him earnestly of his need of pardon through 
Jesus. He met no response, and after a time 
turned sadly away, thinking, as he went, of the 
hardening power of sin. 

Something impelled him to go back and make 
one more appeal, and again he told the dying sin- 
ner that even at that late hour, if he would cry to 
God for mercy he might be saved. The dying 
man opened his eyes, and looked intelligently at 
the minister. Suddenly he began to speak. "When 
I was a boy," said he, " I went to a Sunday school. 
Right back of the superintendent's desk a great 
yellow sun was painted on the wall, and in its rays 
was painted in large letters, 'God is love.' I 
know I am a sinner. I know I am going right 
into God's presence ; but I cannot be afraid of the 
God who is love." 



36 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

And he died with this picture of God, a great 
burning sun of love, stamped upon his sin stained 
heart ? 

Teacher, see to it that upon the wall of your 
class room hangs at least one eloquent teacher. 
Nothing can be better than the picture of Jesus 
and the children ; but let it be something vivid, 
striking, bearing the lesson on its face. No need 
to talk much about it. Hang it up where all can 
see it, and let it do its silent work. 

The more such teachers you can have the better, 
but be sure that each one teaches "the truth as it 
is in Jesus." 

It is not necessary to expend much money on 
these pictures. Often a cheap lithograph is excel- 
lently drawn and has real feeling in it. If you 
have not the artistic sense yourself, get some friend 
who has to help in the selection. It is no small 
matter. 

The story is a familiar one of the mother who 
lamented the fact that her five sons, living far in- 
land, had one after another taken to a seafaring 
life, and wondered why it was so. 

A stranger, hearing her complaint one day, 
pointed silently to a striking picture over her 
mantel, of a ship at sea. Dark clouds were in the 
sky ; the waves ran high, and the ship was strug- 
gling in the midst of them. 

The mother recognized the teacher that had 
prevailed, and was silent. 



CHAPTER IV. 
METHODS AND DEVICES. 

Undervalue nothing, but utilize the small for the illustration of 
the great. — Grimm. 

"\117ITH0UT haste, without rest." 

* * The German poet could scarcely have 
given a better motto for the primary teacher. The 
hour is very short, and there is much to be done. 
No wonder the teacher is tempted to a feeling of 
nervous haste. But let this feeling once creep into 
voice and manner, and we shall see how the little 
ones catch the spirit ! 

There is no help for the sense of hurry and con- 
fusion that overtakes one at such times, save in a 
definite order of work held well in mind. The 
teacher must know just what is coming next, and 
pass to it so quickly that there will be no time for 
disorder to creep in. The program should be care- 
fully prepared for each lesson. Some parts of the 
service should- be unvarying, as the prayer at the 
opening and the echo-prayer at the close of the 
lesson. But for the rest variety in unity should 
be studied, as a changeless repetition wearies and 
soon loses its force. 

The singing and special exercises may and should 



38 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

vary as the lesson demands. The Commandments, 
the children's Psalm, the Beatitudes, whatever we 
may use in concert exercises, will all find their 
appropriate time and place if planned for before- 
hand. The teacher who does not become con- 
fused need not fear confusion, and nothing is so 
sure a preventive as knowing exactly what is to be 
done at each given point. 

The primary teacher must cultivate that calm 
faith in God which forbids restlessness and doubt. 
This will insure the settled, cheerful manner so 
necessary to secure the best results in dealing with 
little children. 

The primary teacher should have something of 
the imaginative faculty. Little children who have 
not yet seen far into the realities dwell very largely 
in this realm. We have always thought well of the 
teacher of that boy who, after following the les- 
sons on the life of Moses for several months, said, 
"I believe I should know Moses if I met him on 
the street ! " 

This is what the primary teacher must aim to do 
— make the children see the people with whom they 
have to do in the lessons. The Bible characters, 
with all the lessons they are set to teach, will be- 
come real living beings to classes if they are such 
to the teachers. But the teacher who leaves it all 
to the imagination will be very likely to fail. Study 
is needed, and the teacher who cultivates the im- 
agination as an aid in teaching must also cultivate 
the habit of study. 



METHODS AND DEVICES. 39 

Do not forget that a wise man has said, " To fill 
the imagination with beautiful images is the best 
thing that can be done to educate little children." 

A successful primary teacher must be full of de- 
vices. This is a necessity because of the difficulty 
of securing and holding the attention of young 
children. 

It is not hard to gain it for the moment, but the 
untrained little mind flies off on the slightest prov- 
ocation — as the opening of a door, the motion of a 
head or hand, or the sudden thought darting into 
the baby mind. The teacher must be quick to see 
and to call back on the instant, or the thread will 
be broken and the connection lost. 

How can this be done ? In many ways ; ways 
that cannot be described, but which can be seized 
upon at the moment. 

The earnest teacher who longs to give food to 
the little flock which may become part and parcel 
of the immortal Being will study all possible ways 
of holding the interest of the children, and will be 
quick to lay innocent traps to catch wandering 
thoughts. 

A cabinet of curiosities, one of Bishop Vin- 
cent's many devices, will prove an untold help to 
a teacher. Into this cabinet will go pictures, paper 
symbols, shells, stones, a bird's nest or two, stuffed 
birds, mosses, dried flowers — anything, in short, 
which you think can possibly be of use in illus- 
trating a lesson. 

It is wonderful how rapidly such a collection 



40 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

will grow, and what a delight it will become both 
to teachers and children. 

If the ambitious " cabinet " cannot be compassed, 
then try the more humble " curiosity box," to which 
as a great favor the children may be allowed to 
contribute, though this will need to be very care- 
fully managed. 

The teacher who will have a box of colored 
crayons at hand and use them, even if she cannot 
draw a picture, need not be troubled by the inat- 
tention of a class. A name printed now and then, 
a few marks to indicate a roadway, the outline of 
a tree or flower — such simple devices seized upon 
when necessary, will keep the children looking to 
see what is coming next. Who cannot make lines, 
circles, squares, and dots ? Get into the habit of 
talking with crayon in hand, and you will find oc- 
casion to use it though you may not be an artist ! 

Then there are endless devices of word, look, 
tone, and manner. A smile and a question (on 
the lesson) may bring back the thought of the 
child who is turning toward "pastures new." A 
tone of hearty encouragement, and the evident ex- 
pectation that the children are ready to "help " in 
teaching this particular lesson, will go far toward 
enlisting them on your side. A teacher who is in 
the habit of striking the bell but once to call her 
hundred little ones to order, found one day that it 
failed to secure attention. Instead of striking it 
again she held it up, saying in a clear tone, "What 
can be the matter with our bell to-day?" In an 



METHODS AND DEVICES. 4 1 

instant every eye was fixed upon it, and the teacher 
had the ear of her flock while she urged prompt 
obedience as pleasing to God. 

Taking into account the play instinct of the 
child is a matter of importance. The little one 
has the ability to endow shapeless forms with life, 
and to enter on demand another world than ours, 
in which chairs, tables, bits of wood or glass, even 
a straight mark on a blackboard means a living, 
moving being! A wise teacher enters this world 
with the child and humors his fancies. 

A gentleman who has great power with children 
appeals to this instinct very successfully. If, for 
instance, three or four characters enter into a les- 
son, he will indicate them on the board by straight 
marks — maybe with a round O for a head. Each 
one will be named ; perhaps one is an evil doer, 
a crooked mark stands for that one ; perhaps one 
is eminent in goodness — a taller mark indicates 
that one. The children enter into the fun of it, 
and those simple marks mean to them real beings, 
the lessons of whose lives are easily taken in be- 
cause the natural instinct of the child has helped 
on the work. 

Many teachers find it difficult to induce little 
ones to learn Bible verses. Plans must be devised 
to make them attractive. The law of association is 
of great value in training children. An "Alphabet 
of Texts " is sometimes taught with the best results. 
A, B, and C suggest the texts which have been 
learned, and the "Alphabet " can never become a 



42 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

tax, for as one short verse is learned each Sunday- 
there is opportunity for abundant review, and the 
whole becomes impressed upon the memory by 
constant repetition. An alphabet of this kind can 
be easily and happily learned in six months, and 
should thereafter be called for as often as once a 
month. Such an alphabet carefully arranged may 
be found on another page. 

Another device is the " Golden Chain." This 
consists of a series of selected texts, the last word 
of each text being the first word of the following 
selection ; for instance : " Now the just shall live 
by faith." "Faith is the substance of things hoped 
for." "For even Christ pleased not himself," etc. 
Such a chain can consist of as many links as may 
be desired. A " Chain " of twelve links running 
through a quarter may be found among Miscella- 
neous Exercises. 

The justly celebrated "Chautauqua Drill," has 
been of great service, as much by its suggest- 
iveness, perhaps, as by its real value. Many 
Bible texts may be taught by the aid of similar 
motions. 

A device of quite another sort is this of the 
birthday letters. A successful teacher of the lit- 
tle ones tells the story : 

"Shall I tell you about my birthday letters? 
This is the way it came about. I had been in the 
habit for a good while of folding the lesson paper, 
putting it in an envelope, and sending it by mail 
to each absent member of my class. The cost 



METHODS AND DEVICES. 43 

was very little, you know, and it served several 
purposes. It told the children that I missed them 
from the class, that I thought about their absence 
the next day, and that I wanted them to study the 
lesson. 

"One Sunday I wanted to illustrate the thought 
in the lesson by a letter. I held one up and, while 
talking about it, asked how many children had ever 
received letters? A good many little hands went 
up. Then I asked who their letters were from ? 
A few said, ' From grandma ' (or some other friend), 
but the majority said, ' From you.' 

" Those little dears actually called that folded 
lesson paper in an envelope a letter ! 

<; I had been using birthday cards for some time. 
Every Sunday I asked who had had a birthday 
during the week, and those who had stopped after 
class and received their cards. 

** That day after I went home I was thinking 
about the children and their ' letters,' and I remem- 
bered how delighted I was when a child to get a 
letter, and the thought came to me, ' Why not write 
birthday letters to the children ? They will prize 
them more than cards.' I made up my mind that 
I would do it ! 

"Then I set about getting my birthday list. I 
found printed cards at the Sunday School Asso- 
ciation Rooms, addressed to parents, asking the 
name in full, the address, and the date of birth 
of the child. If I had not found these cards I 
should have written a letter asking these ques- 



44 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

tions, and made a good many copies with my 
copying pad. It took some time to get a complete 
.list, for my class is large, but I succeeded at last. 
Then I took a hint from another teacher, and 
bought a cheap diary which I use for my birthday 
book. Don't you see how nice and easy it is ? 

"On Sunday I look ahead a week in my book, 
and see if there are letters to write and how many. 
Then I plan to send them so that they will be re- 
ceived on the morning of the birthday. I use chil- 
dren's note paper and write a simple, loving little 
letter, and you would be surprised to know how 
the little dears look forward to getting those let- 
ters! 

U A little motherless girl who 'lives out,' came 
and told me last Sunday, with kisses and tears, that 
nobody remembered her birthday, but teacher ! 
And a poor little boy died a few weeks ago, who 
insisted upon having the little letter near him in 
his sickness. They put it into his little pine casket. 

" Yes; it does take a little time and thought, but, 
indeed, it is the very cheapest luxury I have ! The 
children can't enjoy it more than I do, for I know 
the letters bring pure happiness to little hearts, 
and that they will go on speaking long after I am 
gone." 

" So you do not use the printed birthday let- 
ters ? " 

" O, no; a printed letter wouldn't be a letter from 
me, you know. Little children are so bright. They 
see through shams very quickly." 



METHODS AND DEVICES. 45 

11 Then you look upon the printed letters as 
shams, do you ? " 

"Well, no, not exactly; but they do look very 
businesslike, don't you think so? Perhaps some 
feel obliged to use them to save time, but I'd sit up 
nights to write the real letters with my own hand 
if there were no other way. The Jews were re- 
quired to bring the best, you know, and work for 
the Master never pays until it has cost some- 
thing." 

"Religion," said a New England mother, "is 
representing God in common things. It is learning 
to forbear to be impatient ; to pick up your toys 
and obey." Some think that to teach religion is 
to teach the Catechism and Church creed. Not 
so this wise mother of seven lovely children who do 
keep their tempers and who do obey. The Latin 
word from which we get religion means a binding 
together of some two things. 

The primary teacher needs to remember when 
she enters her class room, that she is there to 
bring God and the children together. To this end 
the children should be diligently taught to put 
their thought of God into action. Doubtless serious 
harm is done by teaching children the lofty truths 
of our faith and not showing them how these 
truths may be made alive in everyday action. 

Do you teach, for instance, that God is orderly? 
Then show the children that they will please the 
God of order by orderly \vays, by doing their tasks 
carefully and well. Help them to see that in so 



46 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

far as they are themselves orderly, they come into 
oneness with the orderly God. 

Do you teach that God is a giver ? Show that 
children may be like him in this. See to it that 
their pennies, which they should be encouraged to 
earn, or to save from money given them to spend 
on their own pleasures, be used in some work in 
which the little ones can have a living interest. 

Do you teach that God is the Author of sound, 
and that he loves harmony? Here you have an 
incentive to help in teaching the children to sing 
sweetly and to speak pleasantly. In all these and 
many other ways, we may help the little ones to 
understand that they may be workers with God. 

The little boy who brought out the animals of 
his Noah's Ark and ranged them in beautiful order 
on purpose, as he said, "to give pleasure to God," 
was doing just what the primary teacher should 
aim to teach the children to do — put their ideal of 
God, however small, into action. When you have 
succeeded in linking God and common things to- 
gether in the child's mind, you have gone a long 
way toward setting open the door of the kingdom. 

It is a marvelous work that is intrusted to the 
primary teacher. If it were only to put into 
words, and teach the children to put into words, 
the truths we seek to impart, that would be a 
comparatively little task. But a word is not a 
truth. It is only a sign of the truth, and we are in 
constant danger of mistaking the sign for the thing 
signified. Truth is an embodied form. " I am 



METHODS AND DEVICES. AJ 

the Truth," said the great Teacher. It is ours to 
teach embodied Truth ; Truth alive and at work. 
"Jesus is the good Man that takes care of little 
childrens," said a mite of a girl. She could easily 
understand that she could please Jesus, and grow 
to be like him too, through unselfish love and care 
for her little sister. 

The primary teacher may come before her class 
full of theories and methods, but the best teaching 
can only be done when the teacher has entered 
the world of thought and feeling in which the 
child dwells. Love is the only door which opens 
directly into this beautiful little world. The 
mother readily interprets the thought of her babe. 
She may never have heard of mental philosophy, 
but she does know what her baby is thinking 
about, for love brings her into its little world and 
makes her wise to understand its need. 

The cry of the teacher, standing before the 
class, needs to be, " Love, more love ! " 



CHAPTER V. 
IN THE CLASS ROOM. 

To them 'tis little that they bring ; 
To Him 'tis very much. — MacDonald. 

TT is no small matter to question a primary class 
* in such a way as to both interest and instruct. 
The teacher will find this out to his cost, who at- 
tempts lo question without previous thought and 
study. The questions must not be too difficult, lest 
they confuse and discourage, and the children give 
up trying to answer. Nor must they be too simple, 
lest the children may think it doesn't much matter 
whether they answer or not. 

Questions for the primary class should be ; 

Questions that awaken thought ; 
Questions that direct thought ; 
Questions that call out thought ; 
Questions that test thought. 

Some teachers ask questions as if they did not 
expect to be answered, and they are not disap- 
pointed. Children understand whether you really 
want to see into their minds or not ; and if you do 
not care much about it they will not insist, you 
may be sure. 

We must question skillfully, or we shall never 
find out childish mistakes, sometimes the result of 



IN THE CLASS ROOM. 49 

wrong teaching, sometimes of a misunderstanding, 
which may lie long like a cankerworm at the very- 
heart of a child's faith. 

"But how can we prepare our questions?" asks 
one. 

Try them upon an average child, or, better still, 
upon two or three. Adapt, change,, modify, or 
reject, as you see there is need. One such trial 
will be worth hours of study in the dark, and it is 
not well to make the class room the place of trial, 
Not many questions are needed, so you can afford 
to write them out, and you will be surprised to 
see how simple they will grow under this process. 

Especially do we need to study the questions 
that direct thought. 

A teacher asked a class of which she had just 
taken charge. 

11 Children, whom does God love ? " 

"Good folks," was the quick reply. 

" Doesn't he love bad folks ? " 

" No, ma'am," rang out clear and strong. 

" Doesn't God love you when you are naughty ? " 
was asked. 

" No, ma'am," a little more faintly. 

" Doesn't mamma love you when you are 
naughty children ? " 

Now the little minds were ready to listen with 
new interest to the story of the adorable and 
never-to-be comprehended love that stoops to love 
sin out of us. 

It was not long before such an answer as the 
4 



$0 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

teacher received that day could not have been ob- 
tained from that class. 

Ah ; how we teachers need the simple word re- 
ceived in the heart, and done in the life, to make 
these first impressions true ones. 

A primary teacher should never dismiss the class 
until the work has been tested. It is so easy to 
step outside the child's world that we are con- 
stantly in danger of doing it, and a few clear ques- 
tions will make it apparent if we have been shoot- 
ing above the children's heads. 

This little incident, published in a tract, illus- 
trates the point : 

A young missionary, in company with a veteran 
in mission work, was visiting a sick man. The 
elder missionary requested the younger to instruct 
the poor man. This he readily proceeded to do, 
giving a clear account of man's fallen condition, 
his need of salvation, and the way to obtain it, 
after which he read a chapter from one of the 
gospels enforcing what he had said. The sick 
man listened attentively, and when the missionary 
said, "You know," he replied, "Certainly, sir, In 
course, sir." The young man seemed pleased with 
his success, until the older missionary began to 
speak. 

" My friend," said he, " I would like now to ask 
you a few questions. Do you know who Jesus 
Christ was?" 

"Well, no," said the sick man. "I should say 
that's werry hard to tell." 



IN THE CLASS ROOM. 5 1 

"Do you know whether he was St. John's brother?" 

"No, that I don't." 

" Are you a sinner ? " 

" O, certainly, sir, we're all sinners." 

A pause. " Have you ever done wrong? " 

" Why, no ; I don't consider as ever I have." 

" Did you ever commit sin ? " 

"Why, no; I don't know as ever I did." 

"But do you think you're a sinner?" 

" O, certainly, sir ; we're all sinners." 

"What is a sinner ? " 

"Well, I'm blest if I know rightly; I never had 
no headpiece." 

Without applying some such guage to our teach- 
ing we shall not know whether we have made our- 
selves understood by the children or not. 

W T e laugh at the amusing blunders the little 
ones make. A little girl sang in good faith for a 
long time. "We are weak, but tea is strong." And 
another, for "Foes without and foes within," sang 
sturdily, "Toady out and toady in." 

But we cannot wonder, when a " grown up " 
could actually go to a clergyman with such a 
question as this : 

" Sir, you often speak about our/tf/vfathers. You 
tell us that their names were Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob. But they are only three. Please, sir, who 
was the fourth ? 

Who can be surprised, after this, at the explana- 
tion given by a little girl as to what Washington's 
headquarters were ? 



52 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

" See, Freddy," she explained, ''that is the house 
where Washington had his head quartered. Papa 
said so." 

We do not know how stilted our language is 
until a child who is aching to know begins to 
question the talk we have thought simple. 

The primary teacher must learn the child lan- 
guage, and no better teacher can be found than a 
sociable child. 

Read to him, tell him stories, get him to tell 
stories in turn, ask him questions, encourage him 
to ask questions, and the result will soon be appar- 
ent in the style of the teaching. 

One can well afford to give time and thought to 
the lessons from little lips. Indeed, one cannot 
afford to do without them. 

We must make a way for our feet as we attempt 
to enter the child world, and it must be an illum- 
inated way. 

The heart and the understanding are to be 
reached, and not only may we make our appeal to 
the little ears, but to the little eyes as well. Very 
often indeed we must send the little eyes to catch 
the little ears. 

" But I have no gift for illustration," says one. 

A determination to do often develops a gift. If 
the teacher sees this a necessity, it will be done. 

Let us not hesitate to use illustrations that are 
neither original nor yet beautiful. Said one about 
the old simile of the worm and the butterfly : 

"O, that is so old!" 



IN THE CLASS ROOM. 53 

" But the children are new," said another. 

Everyday objects are always available in pic- 
turing our thoughts. A dry twig, a living branch, 
a leaf, a flower, a spear of grass — there are sermons 
in them all, and in a thousand things equally close 
at hand. Only let the sermons be short, pointed, 
and practical, as all sermons ought to be. 

Pictures are invaluable in lighting up a lesson. 
Large provision is made for the primary teacher 
in this respect. The illustrated papers of the 
day and the lesson papers are full of fielps. 

When pictures are to be shown, excite expecta- 
tion. Keep them out of sight until needed. Ask 
questions about them. Use children's explana- 
tions as far as possible. 

The teacher who can furnish her own pictures, 
crayon in hand, has much to be thankful for. But 
it is not at all necessary to be an artist in order to 
teach a primary class. Children love to see pretty 
pictures, but their delighted interest and attention 
can be won and held by the simplest marks and 
lines, which they are quite ready to make do duty 
as living beings. 

A small square can represent a house. Straight 
marks mean individuals, and a bit of crayon en- 
ables you to take your little pupils with you on a 
journey from one home to another, or from city to 
city. 

Any teacher can print on the blackboard. When 
printing a word or sentence, let the children" help " 
by calling the names of the letters as you print. 



54 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

This will hold the attention and secure interest in 
the word or sentence. 

A never failing fund of illustration is before you 
in the class. Open your eyes, dear teacher, and 
you shall see on occasion, quick temper, vanity, 
envy, selfishness, greed, and O, thank God, you 
shall see also love, peace, good will, generosity, self- 
surrender — all in the miniature world before you. 
You do not need to go far to illustrate principles 
of conduct. Use your living models. But do it 
wisely and lovingly. 

" I saw a dear boy in this class do so and so. 
Was that right ? Why not ? Do you think God 
saw it too ? I think my boy will not do it again." 

We must know our children to help them at 
such points. To know them only as Mary and 
Jenny and Willy, in their Sunday garb, is not suf- 
ficient. 

What we need as teachers of the little ones is to 
come into vital sympathy with childhood as it is. 
We are not to frown upon the little fellow who tells 
a lie or torments his next neighbor, nor are we to 
pass it lightly by, thinking he will learn better as 
he grows older. The sins common to childhood 
should be spoken of often, and made to appear, as 
they are, hateful in the sight of God. At the same 
time we must show that it is sin that God hates, 
and not the sinner, and that it is because he loves 
the wrongdoer that he must punish him. 

It is in the power of the primary teacher to hold 
up a standard of morality which shall be a Gospel 



IN THE CLASS ROOM. 55 

standard, and yet be understood and lived toward 
by the children. 

" Teacher says it's mean to hit a little fellow," 
said a big boy of six years, looking regretfully 
toward the tormenting youngster of four who 
would persist in knocking off his senior's cap. 

But we must not teach an impossible morality. 
The little humans cannot always do right. We 
must not too often say, "Thou shalt," and "Thou 
shalt not." We should aim to show that right 
doing is the healthy state, and sin the sickness of 
the life, and so win the little ones to choose the 
best. 

And in teaching why we should do this, or should 
not do that, let us constantly refer to the word of 
God for example and precept. 

A pleasant way of lighting up the lessons is by 
story telling. A story holds a charm for any child. 
Here is something living and real upon which his 
mind can lay hold. His active imagination fills 
the dim past and the future alike with life. In 
the golden possibilities of his little thought all 
things are reasonable. 

As teachers we should avail ourselves of this 
peculiarity of the child mind. We may teach the 
facts of a lesson, and bring our pupils to give glib 
answers to questions on names and places ; but if 
we do this at the expense of a human, lifelike un- 
derstanding of the story brought within the actual 
reach of the child, we make a sad mistake. 

Do you say that you have no gift for story-tell- 



56 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

ing? Then cultivate a gift. In many a simple 
little book you may find just what you need. Take 
the book of Bible stories which you have first tried 
upon a bright child, and study it. You will drink 
in the spirit and style almost unconsciously. 

If in your story-telling you see that you do not 
hold the interest of the class, look at home for the 
reason, and resolve that the next story shall be as 
bright and vivid as you can possibly, by study and 
thought and prayer, make it. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE CLASS SINGING. 

" Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor, 
And find a harvest-home of light." 

" 1\I^^' children, you must be very good to-day, 

*^ because you have company, you know!" 
said the teacher of a large primary class. 

It was not strange that the class failed to put on 
a cloak of good behavior for this reason. The 
motive was not sufficient. 

Later, when the "company" asked if the Lord 
Jesus was not there, and led the little thought 
straight to the truth of his living love and pres- 
ence, the idle play ceased, and faces grew thought- 
ful and earnest. 

We should be careful what motives we use in 
appealing to our classes. Jesus said, " I am the 
Truth." The world, which cultivates polite un- 
truth, creeps in fast enough. Let us try in every 
way to encourage our children to the most open 
daylight. 

There is nothing which will influence an ordi- 
nary child like a sense of a living God. 

The teacher who carries the sense of such a liv- 
ing Presence can hardly fail to impart it, and the 



58 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

children will soon learn to feel, with their teacher, 
that God is present, seeing, hearing, noting all 
that is said and done and even thought. 

Little children are very often urged to let some 
visitor hear how well they can sing. Should not a 
higher motive than this be presented ? 

" God is present to hear the little ones sing. 
God loves sweet sounds. God looks beyond the 
lips into the heart. He knows if we mean the words 
we sing." Some words like these spoken before 
singing may leave their impress upon young hearts. 

Singing is so generally thought of as a means of 
enlivening the exercises of the primary school, that 
there is sometimes danger that it may cease to be 
regarded as worship. We should never get away, 
nor suffer the children to get away, from this view 
of it. " O come, let us sing unto the Lord" should 
be kept constantly before the class. 

When should the children sing ? Always in the 
opening exercises of worship. It is well to pre- 
cede the first singing by a short responsive serv- 
ice, as : 

Teacher. " The Lord is in his holy temple : let all the 

earth keep silence before him." 

Class. "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into 

his courts with praise," followed by "Praise him, praise 

him, all ye little children," Little Pilgrim Songs; or, 

Teacher. " I was glad when they said unto me, Let us 

go into the house of the Lord." 

Class. "Serve the Lord with gladness." 

Teacher. " Come before his presence with singing." 

" Little children, praise the Lord," Primary Songs. 



THE CLASS SINGING. 59 

The teacher who has once seen how the thought 
is arrested and the little ones prepared for worship 
in this way will not be likely again to use the 
common old formula, "We will open the exer- 
cises by singing," etc. A praise song is always ap- 
propriate for opening. 

After the prayer a song appropriate to the les- 
son should be sung. Very often in teaching the 
lesson some point can be well enforced by the 
singing of a stanza bearing directly upon it. This 
has the added advantage of resting the children by 
allowing change of position. 

Directly following the lesson teaching a motion 
song may be used with good effect. Motion songs 
are valuable, especially as affording relief to weary 
little bodies and minds, and also motions help to 
impress the words upon the memory. They should 
not be too frequently used, however, lest the sing- 
ing come to be regarded too much in the light of 
entertainment. 

Too much time should not be spent in singing. 
There is a temptation to do this, for most teachers 
are ambitious to teach new pieces, and this takes 
time. 

The lesson should never be shortened on this ac- 
count. Rather add five or ten minutes to the 
hour now and then for the teaching of a new song. 
The song roll is a great help to a teacher, but it is 
not indispensable. 

Usually the words are repeated over and over, 
and then joined to the tune and sung. A few of 



60 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

the quicker ones catch both words and music 
readily, and the slower ones follow their lead. 

A little choir of the children who love to sing is 
sometimes a great help to the teacher. The choir 
does not need to occupy a place near the instru- 
ment, but only to be depended upon to help in the 
singing. Often these little singers will meet with 
teacher to learn a new piece, which, thus supported, 
will be much more readily learned by the whole class. 

A very excellent plan for getting the words of 
new songs taught has been used in some cases: 
" The words of the song are printed on cards, or on 
paper, which is then pasted on a piece of colored 
cardboard. A note to the mother is printed on the 
card, in which she is asked to assist the teacher 
b)' teaching the words of the song to her child. 

" These cards are distributed to the children, who 
take them home and learn the words during the 
week. The teacher makes a collection of both 
words and music, and pastes them into a scrap- 
book. The cards may be collected from the chil- 
dren when the song is learned, and after a number 
of songs have been given out may be fastened to- 
gether and kept as so many books. 

" In this method the most arduous part of the 
teaching of a new song, the teaching of the words, 
is made easy to the teacher; the scholars learn 
them little by little, without fatigue, and correctly, 
and the parent is interested too." 

It is much to be desired that the teacher of the 
primary class should be able to lead the little ones 



THE CLASS SINGING. 6 1 

in this important part of the exercises. But if this 
cannot be great care should be taken to find some 
sympathetic leader in full accord with the super- 
intendent. 

The leader should be thoroughly interested in 
getting every child to sing, not so much for the 
sake of the music as for the sake of the child. The 
dear old Gospel is sung into many a heart and life,, 
and we should neglect nothing that will help to 
win jewels for the King. 

The leader of singing in a primary class needs as 
quick an eye as an ear. Over there is a careless 
child ; here is a stubborn one ; and yonder is a 
shy one. How shall we get them to feel a real in- 
terest in the singing? 

Let them know that you miss their individual 
voices. Tell them that you are sure Jesus would 
be pleased to hear them sing. Put in a word about 
bird songs. We love to hear little birds praise the 
good God. How much more should children use 
their voices to praise him ! 

What kind of pieces shall be taught the children ? 
Generally speaking, the words and music should be 
both simple and elevating. In choosing songs the 
teacher should not lose sight of the fact that the 
singing is to be largely devotional. The sweet 
kindergarten songs are excellent in their place, but 
we want and need all of our one little hour with 
the class for Jesus. 

Let the songs chosen be bright and cheerful. 
Never select a meaningless, even though pretty, 



62 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

jingle. There are plenty of sweet child hymns 
which hold real thought and instruction. And 
there are an abundance of others which contain 
neither. Of making many (Sunday school song) 
books there is no end. 

A few of the dear old hymns of the Church 
should be taught to the children. They will learn 
them readily, and will like them too. In teaching 
any piece, little words of explanation should be 
dropped here and there, so that the little ones may 
know what they are saying. 

The repertory of primary songs should always 
include two or three good temperance and mission- 
ary songs. These are needed, not only in connec- 
tion with special lessons on these subjects, but they 
will sometimes help to enforce one of the regular 
lessons in the course. 

Let it be understood that once each Sunday a 
child may select the piece to follow the prayer at 
the close of the opening exercises. Where there 
are little classes call upon them in order for the 
selection. All other pieces should be chosen by 
the teacher before coming to the class room. Let 
the closing song be soft and sweet. Always aim to 
send the children away with a hush upon the spirit. 

Among the best song books for primary classes 
are : Little Pilgrim Songs, edited by Mrs. Crafts 
and Miss Jennie B. Merrill — Biglow & Main, 76 
East Ninth Street, New York ; Songs for Little 
Folks, by Mrs. Crafts — same publishers ; Liifant 
Praises, J.J. Hood, 1018 Arch Street, Philadelphia, 



THE CLASS SINGING. 63 

Pa.; Gems for the Little Ones, Dr. Blackall, 1420 
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.; Little Songs 
for Little People, Nevvhall & Company, Cincinnati, 
O. ; and Melodies for Little People, by S. V. R. 
Ford — Hunt & Eaton, 150 Fifth Ave., New York. 
A plea for the old hymns in the primary class, 
together with some hints as to how to interest 
children in them, is given in this bit of experience: 

Helen and Ruth came in from Sunday school, and proudly 
exhibited their cards. A hymn was printed on the back of 
each, and on the face was a pretty lithograph. 

" We're learning hymns," said Helen ; " I've learned three 
and Ruth two. When we have learned five teacher is going 
to give us a little book." 

I noticed that Ruth took an early opportunity to ask her 
papa to help her learn her hymn. It was the one beginning, 
" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds," and I listened with 
interest to the unbelieving doctor's reply : 

" Yes, little one. Come into the study after tea, and we'll 
get a start." 

After Ruth had gone to her happy sleep the doctor found a 
little space in which to recall old times, and I thought he 
spoke with unwonted tenderness. 

" Do you not see how strongly Ruth resembles my mother?" 
he said. " The hymn she is learning was one of mother's 
favorites. I could almost hear her singing it again. Ah me ! 
how soon we get away from our childhood teachings," sighed 
the skeptic and man of the world. 

Later, I heard him passing through the hall singing softly, 
" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds," and I rejoiced that a 
little child, led by her Sunday school teacher, was leading 
this strong man toward the kingdom. 

I learned from Helen that she already knew, "O day of 
rest and gladness," " I know that my Redeemer lives," and 
" Joy to the world ! the Lord is come." 



64 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

" And do you sing these hymns in your Sunday school ?" I 
asked. 

" Why, yes ; we like ihem," was the quick answer. 

Afterward, when I met Miss Elmore, I asked her if many 
of the members of her primary class were willing to learn 
hymns. 

" O, yes," she said ; " there is an average of half a dozen re- 
cited each Sunday. My class is not large — only about seventy 
all told, and many of these are very young." 

" But why do you teach them hymns instead of Bible 
verses ? " I asked. 

" O, I do not!" she replied, very earnestly. "I make 
every effort to induce the children to learn the lesson verses, 
or as many of them as they can. And, indeed, the Golden 
and Tiny Texts are learned by nine tenths of my class. But 
a good hymn is the Gospel in rhyme, as you know, and the 
rhythm is a great help in committing to memory. I want to 
prepossess these little hearts and minds, and so I try every 
lawful device for packing away heavenly seeds in the fresh soil. 
Do not you remember the hymns you learned when a child ? " 

"Indeed I do ! " I replied, and then I told her how, during 
a long illness, when unable to talk or listen much, the psalms 
and hymns stored away had sung themselves over and over to 
me, to my great refreshment. And I told her, too, how the 
doctor had helped little Ruth — and been helped. 

" That is the sweet thing about working for the littlest 
ones," said Miss Elmore, with moist eyes. "Little hands 
can often undo doors that resist all other efforts. I expect the 
children of my class not only to store away the dear old 
hymns in their minds, but to call back many a sweet memory 
to older hearts. We learn the best hymns, and the tunes to 
which they are wedded, and I find that the little ones love 
these old hymns dearly. We sing one each Sunday, and they 
quite look forward to it." 

I could not help thinking that Miss Elmore was building 
wisely and well. 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE CLASS PRAYING. 

There sitteth a dove, so white and fair, 

All on the lily spray, 
And she listeneth how to Jesus Christ 

The little children pray. — From the Swedish. 

/^~\NE very hot day in summer it was our priv- 
^-^ ilege to visit a primary class. About seventy 
or eighty little ones were in their places, but the 
teacher was absent. A lady was brought in from 
the main school to offer the opening prayer. It 
was a very long and a very good prayer, but it was 
altogether outside of the world in which these lit- 
tle children lived. 

We wondered that day how many teachers really 
pray with the children. 

We cannot do this unless we enter the world in 
which they live, learn their language, and watch 
the working of their little minds and hearts. But 
in order to do this we must know them, as well as 
know how to pray ! The home influences which 
surround our little ones are very diverse; the temp- 
tations which come to some are quite unknown to 
others. Joys which are common to some are quite 
lacking in the lives of others. 

We need to understand well the various ele- 



66 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

ments which go to make up our classes in order to 
be able to pray with as well as for them. 

Many of the little ones come to us from prayer- 
less homes. O what a privilege to be allowed to 
go with these to our Father! To us is granted the 
opportunity of teaching the golden art which may 
one day open heaven to them ! 

But how well we need to know this holy art our- 
selves ! And what is it after all, but heart — even 
the heart of Jesus beginning to grow in us and to 
flow out toward others. 

The following record of the way worship was 
conducted one Sunday in a primary class may be 
helpful : 

A bright summer Sunday, and three or four hundred little 
ones in the primary class. 

Where? Never mind. They were there, and this record 
of the way worship was conducted in one such class is a true 
one. 

The little groups of ten or twelve each were presided over 
by sub-teachers. Here and there a class, left to its own sweet 
will, worked confusion in its own vicinity ; but the lady ushers 
gave special attention to such classes, and the room, even five 
minutes before the opening, was not a scene of disorder. 

Punctually on the moment the superintendent stepped for- 
ward and gently clapped her hands three times. An instant 
hush fell upon the school. The ushers took their places at 
the doors that they might detain tardy ones there until the 
opening exercises were over. Why should not little ones be 
early taught that worship must not be interrupted? 

In the momentary hush the superintendent said, with rev- 
erent tone and manner, " The Lord is in his holy temple," to 
which teachers and children responded, " Let all the earth 
keep silence before him." 



THE CLASS PRAYING. 6? 

Then little heads were bowed while the superintendent said 
slowly, " Dear Lord, bless our Sunday school to-day," and all 
the children said, "Amen." 

A simple and beautiful praise service followed, superin- 
tendent leading, teachers and children responding. 

Then, at the lifting of the superintendent's hands, all rose 
and broke into a joyous song, " Praise him, praise him, all 
ye little children " (No. 103, Little Pilgrim Songs), which was 
sung with the more spirit because the little thought had just 
been turned toward specific things for which to thank the 
good Father. 

Still standing, the children repeated the familiar lines : 

" To say my prayers is not to pray, 
Unless I mean the words I say ; 
Unless I think to whom I speak, 
And with my heart his blessing seek. 

" If when at prayer I dare to smile, 
Or play, or look about awhile, 
Or think vain thoughts, the Lord will see, 
And how can he be pleased with me ? 

" Before my words of prayer are said, 
I'll fold my hands, and bow my head ; 
I'll try to think to whom I speak, 
And with my heart his blessing seek." 

There was reverent silence during the short and simple 
prayer which followed, closing with the Lord's Prayer, in which 
all joined. 

A familiar child's hymn was sung next, during which late 
comers were allowed quietly to join their classes. Then the 
leader said, "What does our Lord say about giving?" to 
which the class responded, " It is more blessed to give than 
to receive." 

" What kind of a giver does the Lord love ? " 

"The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." 

Then the children repeated after the superintendent : 



68 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

" Small are the gifts that we can bring, 

But thou hast taught us, Lord, 
If given for the Saviour's sake 

They lose not their reward." 

Then the pennies were gathered, while the familiar song, 
" Hear the pennies dropping," was sung. 

It was pleasant to see the giving of the pennies made an 
act of worship. There will be less of careless giving, as well 
as of no giving at all, when the children are taught that true 
giving is as really worship as is the act of prayer. 

At the close of the lesson the superintendent led the chil- 
dren in a short echo prayer. The teaching of the lesson led 
naturally to it, and each petition was so short and simple that 
any child could understand it. 

The closing word between teacher and taught, spoken slowly 
and reverently, was the dear familiar " Mizpah." 

This simple story is given not because it is novel 
or original, or in any way beyond the compass of 
any teacher. It is not given as a program — other 
things enter into the teaching naturally — but only 
as a suggestive outline of worship. 

Any teacher can find aids in various places, as 
has been done in this case, for conducting this 
most important part of the service, varying it from 
time to time as seems best, and planting in the 
child's mind a love of simple, worshipful order and 
reverence in the house of God. 

The prayer of the disciples, "Lord, teach us to 
pray," is one that should be often on the lips of 
the primary teacher. Jesus taught how to pray, 
not alone in the immortal words which have come 
down to us, but also in the mysterious power of 



THE CLASS PRAYING. 69 

life which he implanted — a power which reaches 
out to. take hold upon God as naturally as the ten- 
der plant reaches up toward the great, warm, nour- 
ishing sun. But above all Jesus taught to pray by 
the inward working of his own Spirit, freely given 
for the asking. 

• Many of the children come to us wholly ignorant 
on these subjects. A bright little boy of four years 
was taken to Sunday school for the first time by a 
neighbor. The next day he ran in from his play 
to ask his mamma, " What made the folks at Sun- 
day school sit down on the floor and talk ? " 

The mother was entertaining a caller, and an- 
swered hastily, a O, I suppose they were praying." 

"But what is praying?" persisted the child. 

" Talking to God," said the prayerless mother, 
whose child had never before seen anyone in the atti- 
tude of prayer. " Now run away, that's a good boy." 

Charley started obediently, but turned back at 
the door with one more question : 

" Say, mamma, do you ever talk to God? " 

We shall need to teach what prayer is, why we 
pray, to whom, who may pray, when, and in what 
spirit. It is a work calling for time and patience, 
but it is one that we may not neglect if we love 
the souls of our little ones. 

First, then, what is prayer ? 

Prayer is spiritual breath. As our bodies live by 
breathing the natural air, so do our spirits live by 
breathing spiritual air. If we do not breathe our 
bodies will die. If we do not pray our spirits will die. 



*]0 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Why do we pray ? God tells us to in his book, 
which is his letter to us telling us what to do and 
how to live. We may show the children in many 
ways how needy we are and how we fail in patience, 
obedience, love, because we do not ask help of 
God. Who may pray, and when and where, we 
shall find constant call to teach, illustrating from 
the little lives before us in numberless cases. 

In teaching little children to pray we shall have 
to follow God's way of teaching his people, "pre- 
cept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and 
there a little." A single point at a time is enough. 
In the hush that precedes or follows the prayer, a 
single direction, or explanation, or encouragement 
may be given which will, perhaps, become asso- 
ciated in the child's mind with the act of prayer. 
An echo prayer, gathering into simplest words the 
aspirations awakened by the lesson, will come home 
to many a child's heart. Sometimes a silent prayer 
at the opening or close of the school may open the 
heart to the Spirit. 

Reverence in word and act must be taught by 
precept and example. Prayer should never be 
offered when there is inattention, and the little 
thought will need to be directed often to these 
points. A few simple questions before prayer, or 
the repetition of some of God's words about it, 
may help in preparing the young heart to come 
into the presence of the great King. 

A meeting with the children of the primary class 
every week, in which they may be taught to pray, 



THE CLASS PRAYING. 71 

will be a great help in confirming the little ones in 
a life of trust. It is not easy to bring them to- 
gether on a week day, and the most favorable time 
seems to be at the close of the Sunday school hour. 

Fifteen minutes is long enough time to give to 
the little meeting, and if we fear to weary the chil- 
dren, we may shorten the other exercises a little. 

Bring the Sunday school to a full close. Do 
not let the fact that a meeting is to follow have 
any effect upon the closing exercises. But when 
the last words have been said and the school has 
been formally dismissed, then gather as quickly as 
possible around teacher's desk and begin singing. 

Never require the presence of the children, but 
make the meeting so pleasant and helpful that they 
will want to stay. A simple three-minute talk, an 
earnest echo prayer, singing several times, a single 
stanza each time, and still there will be time for 
little prayers and confessions of faith. 

We shall need to use great care just here, but 
we shall be shown the right course to take if we 
are childlike ourselves, and He who took the little 
ones in his arms and blessed them, will honor our 
sincere efforts to help the lambs into his fold. 

Children are impressed by forms. We may teach 
them to kneel, or bow the head, or stand with closed 
eyes and folded hands during prayer, and when far 
from our reach the power of habit will assert itself, 
and a tender, quieting thought of God will come 
back with the memory of childhood's days. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE CLASS WORKING. 

" We learn through doing." 

\X/E teach the children pretty songs about 
* ^ " working for Jesus." We ring the changes 
on the word " workers," when we select mission- 
ary names for classes, and we talk often and feel- 
ingly about the work that our Lord wants even the 
little children to be busy about. 

But do we teach how the little ones may work ? 

It is a principle in all true kindergarten teaching, 
that direct harm comes from arousing a child's 
love and enthusiasm without offering some outlet 
for it at the time. 

When we talk about children who never hear of 
Jesus, and awaken sympathy in their behalf, we 
must be ready at the time to show how children 
more favored can help in sending the Gospel to 
them. An intelligent child understands very well 
that the coin given him at home to put into the 
missionary collection is not his own personal gift. 
It is for the teacher to show how he may exercise 
self-denial by saving money given him to spend 
for his own pleasure, and so making an offering all 
his own. Ways should be suggested in which 



THE CLASS WORKING. 73 

children may earn the money they give, so that it 
may really be "love money," given because they 
love to give to the dear Lord. 

Children may be taught to feel it a happy priv- 
ilege to give. To secure this result they need to 
be frequently reminded, for parents are often care- 
less and fail to help educate the children in this 
direction, and the children of careless parents are 
very likely to be careless too. 

Ask sometimes at the opening of the school, 
"How many have brought an offering to-day?" 
"How many forgot the offering to-day?" Then 
urge those who have forgotten to bring it to remem- 
ber it next Sunday, and when next Sunday comes 
ask how many of these have remembered this 
time. 

Do not fail to make clear what is meant by the 
"offering." Always speak of it as such, rather 
than the "collection." It is God's money. We 
offer it to him and ask him to bless it. 

The gathering up of the offerings should be made 
as early in the session as can be. The mind of 
a little child is often seriously burdened by the 
care of the penny. 

A visitor thus reports the gathering of self-de- 
nial pennies : 

Visited an infant class in the Baptist Sunday school in W. 
It was made up of children from four to seven years of age. 
Between thirty and forty little ones were there, and the very 
atmosphere of the room was laden with innocence and peace. 
The teaching was of the simplest, and entirely healthful, as it 



74 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

seemed. I was especially pleased with the simple yet effec- 
tive way in which the true spirit of giving was taught. 

" Now we will have the missionary pennies," said the 
teacher. " I wonder if there are any best pennies here to- 
day?" 

Up went half a dozen little hands. 

" That is nice. Now, how many good pennies are 
there ? " 

Nearly all the remaining hands went up. 

" Henry, suppose you tell us what the good pennies are," 
said the teacher. 

A chubby-cheeked little boy stood up and said, with much 
seeking for the right words, " The — pennies your father — or 
sister gives you." 

" Hattie, you may tell what the best pennies are." 

A bright little four-year-old promptly replied, " The pen- 
nies you get your own self." 

" Now I will let those who have best pennies bring them to 
the table first and put them in this pretty box. But first we 
all want to know how you got them your own selves. Robbie, 
how did you earn your penny ? " 

"I went to the store for grandma," said Robbie. 

Another " brought papa's slippers ; " one little girl "swept 
the floor for mamma ; " while another "watched baby a whole 
hour" — well worth the penny thus earned. One little boy 
who came proudly forward, when asked how he earned his 
penny, said, " Papa gave it to me." 

He was sent back to wait the turn of the good pennies. 

One child anxiously asked, " Is this a best penny — Uncle 
Fred gave it to me for candy, and I saved it ? " 

" Yes, Mary, that is surely a best penny," said the teacher, 
and in a few simple words she spoke of the blessings self-de- 
nial brings. 

When the good pennies had been gathered the children 
repeated with their teacher : 



THE CLASS WORKING. 75 

" Small are the gifts that we can bring, 

But thou hast taught us, Lord, 
If given for the Saviour's sake 

They lose not their reward." 

Then in a brief echo prayer teacher and children asked the 
Lord to take his little children's offerings, and use them to 
help other children to know him. 

Care must be taken in all our teaching to pre- 
serve the self-unconsciousness of the child. Just 
this way of teaching the true spirit of giving may 
not be practical in many cases, but all teachers will 
agree that it is desirable to teach even the very 
little ones that the very essence of true giving is 
self-denial, and that it is the giving heart, even 
more than the giving hand, which our Lord wants. 

Where the class is subdivided, the teachers col- 
lect the pennies and send them up by some child. 
The classes are called in order, by their missionary 
names if they have them, by the superintendent. 
If the class is not a large one, and the room will 
admit of it, the children may march past a table 
on which stands, a box, or receptacle of some kind, 
each child thus depositing his own offering. " Hear 
the pennies dropping," or " Give, said the little 
stream," or "The song of the pennies," are good 
songs to be used during this exercise. 

But the giving of money is only one of the 
ways of giving which we should seek to incul- 
cate. Teach frequently that any child can give 
kind words, loving service, and ready obedience — 
gifts of great value in our Lord's sight. 



j6 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Just a few words in this direction each Sunday 
will be a good investment. In teaching little 
children we must be content to repeat, repeat, re- 
peat. 

There are many ways in which children may be 
trained to give. 

Tell the class some day about the children's 
home or hospital which you have visited. Their 
little hearts will be stirred with pity and the im- 
pulse to help. Tell them how they may do so. 
Appoint a time when they may bring to the Sun- 
day school room toys, books, and papers, from 
their own stores, which they are willing to give 
away, having first obtained permission from their 
parents, of course. What a happy hour will be 
spent in making up a box to send away! The 'in- 
terest of the children will be intense, and when 
another holiday time draws near you will see that 
the child thought turns naturally again in this di- 
rection. 

Distance from the cities where such homes and 
hosDitals are most found need not hinder, for ex- 
press charges are light, and such gifts are very ac- 
ceptable in thousands of places. 

But perhaps you feel that there is need at home, 
and it is quite true that the poor are always with 
us. Help the little ones to see how some sick 
child or old person may be made happy by their 
love and good will. 

In a certain primary class a pretty red box stood 
on the teacher's table. It was not the " mission- 



THE CLASS WORKING. JJ 

ary box ; " it was seldom mentioned in the class, 
but its purpose was well understood by the chil- 
dren, and every Sunday some smiling children 
were seen to drop coins into it quietly. A visitor 
asked what it meant one day. 

" O, that," said the teacher, " is our ' happy day ' 
box. Only self-denial money goes into it. Once 
in three months we open it, and use the contents 
to help make a happy day for some sick person — 
a child if possible. A committee of the little giv- 
ers is appointed to carry the gift, whatever it may 
be." 

" And what are some of the gifts ? " was asked. 

" Last quarter we were able to buy a ticket, and 
furnish a lunch as well, for a poor mother to take 
her sick child to the seashore for a day. She declares 
that the baby's life was saved by the change com- 
ing just in time. Sometimes we send fruit and a 
picture book, or a toy, to a sick child. Often 
flowers and some nourishing food are sent to an 
old person 'with the love of the little children.' 
Once we had enough money in one box to send a 
quarter of a ton of coal to a sad old lady, left alone 
in the world, whose heart was warmed quite as 
much as her body by the gift." 

"But how do you find the needy and worthy ob- 
jects of this loving-kindness? " 

" O, I visit my class," said the busy teacher. 

The " birthday box " may be used for some such 
purpose. Of course, the little ones should know 
just what is done with the money they bring. 



78 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

The primary class may be made a power as a 
means of communication between the Church and 
the home. 

So many of the children come from Christless 
homes ! And we want the Gospel to enter these 
homes. How can we help to bring it about ? 

The lesson paper should be made much of by 
the teacher. Let the children see that you prize 
it. Give it to them neatly folded with the request 
that they carry it home and ask mamma or papa to 
read it to them. Speak of this often. 

Occasionally give each child a pretty tract to 
carry home to mamma. Such beautiful tracts can 
be had now at such very low prices that few teach- 
ers will find this impracticable. 

Hunt & Eaton, 150 Fifth Avenue, publish aline 
of beautiful tracts, with a really artistic illuminated 
page, two pages of choice reading matter, and a 
blank outside page. These are really little book- 
lets, and may be utilized by the primary teacher, 
not only to carry a Gospel message to the home, 
but also to call attention to the primary class, and 
to invite home cooperation. A little letter to 
mamma, printed or written on the blank page, may 
bring forth fruit in due time. 

Most primary teachers can point to earnest 
Christians who have been led to the house of God 
by their little ones. 

Great care should be taken in encouraging chil- 
dren to give and to help, that vanity and self-love 
be not nurtured. " For Jesus' sake," should be 



THE CLASS WORKING. 79 

held rp constantly as a motive, as the motive in all 
giving and doing. Who has not seen the exultant 
air with which one child exhibits a quarter or a 
half dollar as his missionary offering? We need 
to know how to train wisely here, lest we chill 
warm young hearts. 

But far beyond all other work that children are 
to do, is the applying of the truth taught in the 
Sunday school to the daily life. Little has been 
gained if we merely teach the outside truths of the 
lesson. How may we help the little ones to see 
that truth in the head is of little worth ; truth in 
the heart (life) is worth uncounted gold ? 

First of all we must believe this ourselves. W r e 
cannot really impart anything which we do not 
ourselves hold. If we have not seen, and do not 
see, the numerous ways in which the intellectual 
truth held, very earnestly, perhaps, is liable to be 
set at naught in the everyday doings of our own 
life, we shall not be likely to see the same in our 
classes. For instance, when the children are sing- 
ing with great spirit, "I love Jesus, yes I do," and 
at the same time we see little ones crowding and 
pushing as they sing, say nothing of the naughty 
act, but quietly say, "We cannot go on singing this 
sweet song now. Some of us do not love Jesus, 
and we must not sing what is not true. True love 
is unselfish." 

The disorder will correct itself quickly, when 
the children are thus brought face to face with 
their own consciences. 



CHAPTER IX. 
V/EEK DAY WORK. 

"Where the lambs go, the flocks will follow." 

Si A PRIMARY class teacher cannot be a society 
**• lover," says one who knows. 

It is needful that the little ones be seen and 
known at their homes, as well as in the Sunday 
school if the best work is to be done. 

" But the class is so large." 

"And constantly changing." 

" And we are so busy." 

It is all true, and these are not trifling objec- 
tions. 

There are teachers who from lack of physical 
strength, or absorbing week day duties, are unable 
to visit their classes. It is a great loss; they know 
it and feel it, if the work lies near their hearts. 

Such teachers will manage in some way to have 
the work done, though they must themselves 
forego the privilege. 

Helpers will be called in. If there are not as- 
sistants in the class to do the visiting, ladies may 
be found in the church who will take a list of 
names and report. 

The superintendent may meet these visitors oc- 



WEEK DAY WORK. 8 1 

casionally, and through them may learn much of 
the homes and lives of the children. 

But this is an extreme case. Generally the sup- 
erintendent of an ordinary primary class can visit 
if she feels that she can. 

Suppose the class numbers a hundred and fifty. 
One afternoon a week is not much to give. Half 
a dozen calls can easily be made in an afternoon. 
You will see how by this little expenditure the en- 
tire class may be visited once a year, and a liberal 
margin left over for special cases — sickness, strang- 
ers, etc. We would not suggest that this is enough 
by any means. A half-yearly or quarterly visit is 
much to be preferred, but one who feels that there 
is very little time to give to this work can surely 
afford as much as this. 

The fact that the class is constantly changing 
renders our work in this direction more impera- 
tive. We have so little time. What we do must 
be done quickly. Only fifty-two hours in the year 
at the very best. Shall we not avail ourselves of 
every possible means of winning the tender little 
hearts to the Lord we love? 

"We are so busy." Indeed we are, but let us 
look sharply at our "busy-ness " for a moment. 
We want to gain time for a holy work — leading the 
little ones to the dear Saviour. 

Possibly we may find an afternoon here and 
there which once went to the work of personal 
adornment. The dainty ruffles and embroideries 
are very well for those who have not found nobler 

6 



82 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

work to do. But if they hinder our work for 
Christ, let us pass them by, We will wear a plainer 
garment that we may more effectually show our 
little ones the robe of his righteousness. 

Perhaps we may take a little time, too, from our 
social engagements, and be no losers; we may 
even deny self here, and grow thereby. 

Dear teachers, the day is won when we have re- 
solved that we will visit our class, the whole of it, 
if life and strength be granted us. We get the 
time somehow, difficulties vanish, the dread of 
meeting strangers dies away, and the reward that 
comes to us more than makes up for any self-sac- 
rifices we may have made. 

Each must do this work in her own way, but a 
few hints may be helpful to beginners. A visiting 
book is needed, of course, containing pupils' names 
and places of residence. When in a street, call 
upon all of your class in that street if possible. 
Some little heart will be grieved if passed by. Call 
for the children. If they are not to be seen leave 
a message for them. Learn all that you can about 
them. Tell the mother it will help you to know all 
she will tell about their tempers and habits. This, 
if they are not present. If they are, draw all you 
can from the children themselves. 

Now is the time to encourage home cooperation. 
Ask Johnny if he keeps his papers; if he remem- 
bers to ask mamma to teach him the Golden Text; 
if he likes to carry home a little book and hear the 
stories read. 



WEEK DAY WORK. 83 

Almost any mother will do these things for her 
child if she thinks of it. The child will be likely 
to remind her if he is reminded, and it is well to 
speak of it in her presence. 

Invite the mothers to visit the primary school. It 
is the fashion to complain of visitors, and it is true 
that little eyes and minds are easily diverted, but 
if the hour is packed full of interest there is no 
danger of serious diversion. If teachers attend 
faithfully to their work, the children will not wan- 
der far. 

The mother who has visited the primary class 
will be more interested to send her child promptly 
and regularly. She will, perhaps, see ways in which 
she may promote the work of the teacher. 

And for some of the mothers who are not church- 
goers, this may be a step toward the house of God — 
who knows? a step toward eternal life! By all 
means let us invite parents to visit the class. 

There is great tendency to irregularity in a pri- 
mary class. The teacher who visits will do much 
to correct this. The children will know that they 
are missed if teacher calls and speaks of it, and 
this will prove a stimulus to regularity. 

The class will grow if you visit. There are new- 
comers in a neighborhood. There are children 
who attend no Sunday school. You will hear of 
them as you go about, and it costs but a few mo- 
ments of time to call and invite them to your own 
school, if there are no church preferences. 

Calls should be seasonable; at hours when the 



84 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

children maybe expected to beat home, and when 
domestic matters will not be interfered with. We 
need especially to study " times and seasons " in 
visiting among the poor, and even then we shall 
come often upon clamor and confusion. Do not 
be dismayed at anything. Accept the situation, 
whatever it may be, and you will soon make your 
place in the family. 

Do not fail to leave your card at the poorest ten- 
ement, if you cannot gain access. Recognition is 
a power in itself, and we need to look out for every 
little thread of influence. 

This is a blessed work. Through it we gain 
encouragement and strength, to say nothing of 
the love and confidence of our little friends. It 
is a work that multiplies in our hands, for this is 
the beauty and blessedness of work for Christ — 
that it is sure to lead to more and larger work for 
him ! 

Many things often combine to render continued 
visiting a heavy burden, especially if the class is a 
large one. There maybe failing health, multiplied 
cares, and absolute, unavoidable lack of time. 
What can be done in such cases? 

Perhaps we may bring the children to us, if we 
cannot go to them. If the class is a large one it 
may be divided into groups, and one or more of 
these be invited at a time to meet teacher for a lit- 
tle visit or "party." Most teachers will find it 
better to have these gatherings in the Sunday 
school room. Let them be informal, and small 



WEEK DAY WORK. 85 

enough so that there may be some friendly talk 
with each child, two or three songs, a few games, 
and a little pointed, practical Bible teaching. Be 
sure to send the children away happy, and with 
some little memento of the occasion; if it be noth- 
ing more than some pretty form cut from bright 
paper. Little pink paper apples given out on such 
an occasion were cherished by the children for 
months thereafter. 

We may have play studies at these little visits. 
Seek among building blocks for such as will help 
to a knowledge of and love for the Bible, and help 
your little ones to build. You may teach them 
thus to build the temple, and with a shallow box of 
sand you may teach them, to their great delight, 
something of the natural features of the Holy Land. 
This, too, will be a favorable time for teaching the 
words of new songs that you want to introduce, 
and many helpful things, unforeseen at first, will 
present themselves to do at such times. 

If the school is divided into small classes, invite 
the class teachers to come by all means. It will 
help to promote home cooperation if the mothers 
will come also. Many mothers fail to help on the 
work the Sunday school teacher is trying to do be- 
cause they do not know how. 

Awaken their interest by personal intercourse 
brought about in some way, by letter writing, by 
frequent messages through the children, and by 
invitations to the little parties if possible. 

Of course, visiting remains to be done, however 



86 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

much we may lighten our labors in that direction. 
There will be the sick and the poor and the new- 
comers to whom we must go, but the plan of week 
day visits here outlined will bring us more di- 
rectly into contact with the children themselves 
than even going to their homes, while it will give 
opportunity for teaching in some directions 
which we could hardly secure otherwise. 

Most teachers can in this way, without a great 
outlay of time or strength, manage to meet the 
little ones of their class at least once in three 
months. 

In addition to these meetings, an occasional 
gathering of the whole school will be pleasant and 
profitable, as at the picnic, or lawn party, in sum- 
mer, and at some time during the winter. By this 
we do not mean the " festival " so called, of the 
entire school, but a separate, brief, bright hour, 
especially for the primary class. 

There is one point more which should be noted. 
It is never safe for the teacher of a primary class 
to pass any child on the street without looking 
into its face. Some of our little ones will joy- 
fully demand recognition ; but there are shy chil- 
dren who will not say a word if passed unnoticed, 
but who will carry home a sense of loss because 
teacher was talking to a friend and did not notice 
them. 



CHAPTER X. 
CHILD FESTIVALS. 

If you make children happy now, you will make them happy 
twenty years hence by the memory of it. — Sidney Smith. 

CROEBEL calls teachers, u True guardians and 
•*■ gardeners of children." 

Not only does the teacher called of God pro- 
tect and defend the innocence of childhood, but 
he tills the soil of the fresh young heart, sows the 
seeds of truth, and carefully cultivates the tender 
germs as they begin to push up into sight. Any- 
thing which helps on this blessed work must, in 
the nature of things, be eagerly welcomed by such 
a teacher. 

In that delightful book, Reminisce?ices of Froebel^ 
by Baroness von Biilow, we read of a child festival at 
Altenstein, planned by Froebel and his friend and 
colaborer, Middendorff, which suggests an idea 
not indeed new to Sunday school workers, but 
one capable of larger development than it has yet 
received. 

In making ready for this festival we read of 
Froebel and Middendorff, two old men whose lives 
illustrated the motto, " Come, let us live for our 
children," that "the joy of their souls was visible 
in their faces like that of mothers the day be- 



88 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

fore Christmas." And this is in no way surprising, 
since " to make children happy blesses human 
hearts." 

The picnic, the excursion, and the festival are all 
familiar to us. We know what occasions of delight 
they are to the children, and under the influence 
of their pure joy in this kind of association we are 
ready to feel and say that such innocent recreations 
should be multiplied. But we are in a busy world, 
and a playday for a large school calls for an amount 
of time and labor which many teachers can ill- 
afford to give. Is there not some way in which 
these festive days may be multiplied without put- 
ting too great a burden upon teachers ? 

A primary teacher in a school where picnics and 
excursions were almost unknown solved the ques- 
tion for her own class by giving three or four "par- 
ties " in the course of the year. They were very 
simple parties, indeed, involving little in the way 
of preparation. In the summer they were held on 
a shady lawn kindly offered by a friend. Ham- 
mocks were swung under the trees, and many sim- 
ple games were played by the children in which 
their teachers heartily joined. Ice cream and cake, 
or lemonade and cake, made glad the little hearts 
at trifling cost, and when the sweet summer day 
declined, the children sat in little groups on the 
grass and sang their sweet songs of love and praise 
to Jesus. 

These little parties were looked forward to with 
great delight. One was called an " orange party.'* 



CHILD FESTIVALS. 89 

Another a "peanut party," because a big basket 
of these dainties stood on the lawn ; and still an- 
other a "strawberry party," at which the children 
were served with these delicious berries. The 
mothers were formally invited, and great effort was 
made to prevent anything like stiffness and for- 
mality. 

When the weather did not admit of an outdoor 
festival the children were gathered in a large school 
room. Here it was not so easy to manage them, 
but love and tact can overcome a world of diffi- 
culties, and it was noticeable in all these gatherings 
that there was np ill-natured mischief. The fun 
was hearty, genuine, and loving, and the children 
as well as their teachers went home the better, 
because the happier, for the afternoon's pleasure. 

Lawn parties in large cities cannot be compassed 
so easily. But teachers can take their classes to 
the public parks, and so give the children the com- 
panionship of nature ; or, if this be impossible, 
they can meet them in the church, in their own 
homes, or at a friend's home. 

"Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things 
are lovely," let us try to bring to the children whom 
we seek to lead into the paths of peace. 

A child festival gives opportunity for the prac- 
tical teaching of some of the highest truths, and it 
may safely be said that no child can ever en- 
tirely lose out of his heart and life the influence 
of a happy day of glad companionship with teacher 
and playmates, and nature, perchance, all sweet- 



go THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

ened and hallowed by the thought of the relation- 
ship to Jesus which is the bond of living union ! 

But there is another sort of festival which is not 
under the control of the primary teacher, but in 
which the little ones are expected to join. The 
Christmas and Easter festivals, Children's Day, and 
the Autumnal Service are all occasions upon which 
the church expects to see and hear the little children. 

The wise and tender teacher of the little ones 
needs to guard a point just here. Witness this 
" ower true tale : " 

It was in a church. Children's Day services 
had called out a large congregation. The children 
were there in force, and as was to be expected the 
grown people came to see and be glad with the 
little ones. 

The large primary class filled the seats nearest 
the altar. How sweet and innocent the little faces 
looked ! How " unspotted from the world ! " The 
very flowers that smiled on every side did not look 
brighter and purer than did the human blossoms. 
The birds uttering soft notes of praise did not 
seem more innocently happy than did these little 
ones. Looking on beyond, to the seats full of self- 
conscious little maids with bangs and frizzes in- 
numerable, and to the rows of fashionable and 
frivolous young folks still further back, one felt 
instinctively like throwing protecting arms around 
this fresh innocence and unconscious grace ! 

Protect them ? O yes, from the world, the flesh, 
and the devil ! Protect them from the arch enemy 



CHILD FESTIVALS. 9 1 

who loves few things so well as the chance to spoil 
the sweet unconsciousness of childhood ! 

Alas ! that the dear children should need to be 
protected from the very church herself, which 
ought to be such a wise and tender mother ! From 
the very Sunday school, which ought to nurture all 
that is sweet and true and real ! 

At a certain point in the exercises a little girl of, 
perhaps, six or seven years was called out for a 
recitation. She tripped airily forward, and an- 
nounced herself within the altar inclosure by an 
elaborate and most unchildlike bow. She had 
been trained into a self-consciousness that was 
painful to witness, and nattered into a self-admira- 
tion that might make an angel weep to behold ! 

She said her pretty little piece "beautifully." It 
was religious verse, as befitted the time and place, 
and a part of the show was a prayer. ' At the proper 
place the little maid sank gracefully upon her knees, 
folded her hands, closed her eyes devoutly, and 
with due regard to elocutionary inflections and 
effect, addressed her Maker in choice rhyme ! 

Amid murmurs of applause and greeted by ad- 
miring looks and smiles, the little actress took her 
seat, this part of the performance concluded. 

Was not this a ruthless robbing the rose of its 
sweetness? a stealing the perfume from the violet 
just unfolding? 

What wonder that a wise mother went away, say- 
ing, " I dare not send my little girl where she can 
even see such things ! " 



92 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

And what wonder that the child who had tasted 
the sweets of applause was eager to be recognized, 
when the time came for another festival, as one 
who could '* recite in the big church ! " 

Better, a thousand times, never to have a Chil- 
dren's Day than to rub the bloom off a child's soul ! 

Looking upon children as the fair, promise-laden 
young immortals they are, the question as to what 
shall be the spirit and aim of our festivals becomes 
one of the gravest import. Shall the Christmas 
festival bring the Lord Jesus prominently before 
our children, stimulating a deeper love fjr him 
who came a little babe into our midst ? 

Shall the glad Easter service awaken new and 
living thoughts of the Life that could not be 
bound by death ? 

Or shall these holy opportunities be lost in the 
confusion of rehearsal for public performance and 
the display too often attendant upon the occasion ? 

That the Christmas festival maybe, and often is, 
made the means of drawing both teachers and 
pupils into more real union with the wonderful 
Life manifested so long ago, there is no doubt. 
But it remains sadly true that in too many schools 
something very like this goes on : 

A teachers' meeting is called and the question, 
"Shall we have a festival?" comes up. If the 
church chances to be in a city the conclusion is 
almost a foregone one. "What shall it be?" is 
the next question. Sometimes there are many minds 
about the matter, but the smart, practical teacher 



CHILD FESTIVALS. 93 

who prides himself upon doing things in a business- 
like way, usually gets the floor — and keeps it. 

"Of course we must have a festival, and we 
must make it pay," says this brother. " Our fes- 
tival costs a good round sum. We must make it 
pay for itself, and if it is rightly managed it will 
pay something into the Sunday school treasury. 
But we must have a fine program if we expect to 
compete with the other churches. We must have 
something that will draw! " 

The man of business speaks truly. If the world 
is to help us buy our Christmas toys and candies, 
we must give the world what it will enjoy. 

Possibly the superintendent does not quite feel 
like making this time of family rejoicing over the 
birth of our Lord to be turned into a time of 
mirthful festivity for the unbelieving world, but the 
man of business says, "You can't expect to get 
young people into the church and keep them there 
unless you make things lively for them." 

The superintendent is a busy, peace-loving man, 
and he says, " Well, brethren, appoint your com- 
mittee," and gives a sigh of relief as he thinks that 
he, at least, will not be held responsible for the 
character of the entertainment ! 

Now the appointing of this committee is no small 
matter ! Brother A must not be put on, for he is 
old-fashioned enough to believe that the plain, 
simple religion of Jesus can and ought to be made 
attractive even to young people. And Sister B 
will not do, for she devoutly believes that her dear 



94 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

church was one day dedicated to the service of the 
living God, and that he ought to have the first place 
on the program every time the house is opened. 

The committee is finally made up with the brother 
at the head who knows what business is; and super- 
intendent, pastor, and teachers are left delightfully 
in the dark as to what the entertainment is to be. 

And it pays; O yes, it pays! "Full house, 
crowded ; had to repeat second night. Cleared 
enough to pay off the old debt and something 
more." 

The world enjoyed it. Why not ? It was de- 
signed to " draw " — dollars and cents into the treas- 
ury. Only croakers will ask how He " who sitteth 
in the heavens " enjoyed it all ! 

The children were all there, and they do not 
criticize; they only drink in. 

Christ or Kris Kringle ? Which shall it be ? 
The question is not a trivial one. When we go to 
the world to find entertainment for our young folks 
we declare to them in language which they well 
understand — the language of deeds — that there is 
lack of joy and brightness in the religion we profess. 

We wou'd make Christmas the gladdest, hap- 
piest day of all the year; but we would have all 
the joy and gladness center around Him whose 
birth we celebrate. 

We would seek in every Christian way to banish 
gloom and sadness on that day, but we would not 
carry semitheatricals into our churches to kindle 
the spirit of rejoicing. 



CHILD FESTIVALS. 95 

But what can the primary teacher do in defense 
of her little flock, when the "committee" come 
seeking whom they may devour? 

This is not a fancied danger. Here is a speci- 
men page from a real teacher's real experience : 

The lesson for the day was one of exceptional 
interest. The teacher had carried it on her heart 
all the week, and now, as she stood before the 
class and looked into the eager, upturned faces, 
she prayed most fervently that it might be a day 
of specially successful seed sowing. 

Right in the midst of the hush of interest per- 
vading the class came interruption number one. 

The door opened, and a young man entered. He 
wore a busy air, and carried in one hand a package 
of tickets, in the other a book and pencil. 

"Do not allow me to interrupt," he said, po- 
litely, "but I would like, if you please, to ascertain 
how many of the children of your class will take 
tickets to sell for the entertainment." Instantly 
every child was on the alert. "Good; we're 
going to have an entertainment," whispered Tom 
Ruggles. 

"Teacher, do they want little girls to sing?" 
questioned pretty. Lulu Noble, who had learned 
from past experience that her bell-like treble was 
in demand on such occasions. 

"Say, mister, be they goin' to give a" prize to 
the one what sells the most tickets?" demanded 
one youngster of a commercial turn of mind. 

Ten minutes by the clock were consumed in 



g6 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

giving out tickets and registering names of holders, 
and then, with a skill born of past experience, the 
teacher sought to gather up the broken threads of 
interest and go on with the lesson. 

Again little eyes and ears were open, and again 
the teacher attempted to bring the living truth of 
the lesson to bear upon little hearts, when the 
door opened and interruption number two entered. 
This time it was a lady, smiling and gracious. 

"You will pardon me, I am sure, if I intrude. I 
am looking for a chorus of little girls to help in the 
singing at the entertainment, and I am obliged to 
break in upon the lesson hour." 

The disappointed teacher went home feeling that 
the teaching for that day was a failure, and know- 
ing that the end was not yet, for rehearsals must 
be held, announcements made, and, by and by, 
tickets be gathered up and returns looked after; 
and before it was all over the lovely lessons of the 
quarter would be past and gone. 

Just this kind of vandalism is allowed in many 
schools, arid one is tempted to sympathize with 
the teacher who said, when asked how she kept 
this sort of thing out of her class : " I bolt my 
door." 

But some one is thinking, " It is easy to say 
what shall not be done ; who will tell us what to 
do?" 

Observe all these festivals, certainly, but let 
them be religious festivals. There are beautiful 
responsive services, in which all may take part, 



CHILD FESTIVALS. 97 

and sweet songs which all may sing. If children 
are allowed to recite at all, great care should be 
taken to choose simple, devout, little souls, who 
will easily enter into the thought that their own 
part is to "please Jesus," and not to attract atten- 
tion to self. A young child should never be per- 
mitted to appear alone before an audience. It is 
bad enough when a half dozen or more unite in a 
little exercise. 

The primary teacher should reserve the right to 
choose and drill any members of the class who are 
to take part in an entertainment. Never intrust 
this to a strange committee. 

Lead those who are chosen to think of their lit- 
tle part as something to be done "for Jesus' sake." 
Keep this thought before them. Every time you 
drill them, offer a little prayer, that they may be 
kept from thinking about themselves or their audi- 
ence, but only about Jesus, and how they may 
please him. In drilling the children, aim to pre- 
serve the childlike simplicity. 

Nothing can be so pleasing to an audience as 
this very simplicity. A stage bow, an elocutionary 
tone, and gestures, what can be more distasteful to 
the. right-minded hearer? 

And, dear teacher, whatever the committee may 
require of your class in a public way, let nothing 
prevent the Easter lesson being taught to your 
class alone; and the sweet Christmas story as well. 

7 



CHAPTER XI. 
THE CHILDREN'S MEETING, OR JUNIOR LEAGUE. 

"The paths that lead us to God's thror.e 
Are worn by children's feet." 

THESE are wonderful days in which we live. 
Right in the midst of so much that seems 
wholly outward a warm current is making its silent 
way, bearing life upon its bosom. God is in it ; 
nay, God is it ! It is he who is breathing upon the 
ice-bound rills and rivulets, and making of them 
"streams that water the desert." It is he who is 
speaking to one and another and another, here 
and there, often in unlooked for places, and 
saying, " Son, daughter, go work to-day in my vine- 
yard." 

The call to work among the children is reach- 
ing many hearts. Childhood occupies a large 
place in the life of to-day, and many earnest souls 
are asking if the little immortals may not be born 
into and kept in the heavenly kingdom while the 
dew of youth is yet upon them. 

The Master won them while on earth, and "has 
left record of it in the words, " These little ones 
which believe in me." 

And is he not on earth to-dav ? Is he not calling: 



THE CHILDREN'S MEETING. 99 

the children as of old? Is he not saying to us, 
"Forbid them not?" . 

How can we help to bring the children to a 
conscious life of love and service ? 

What did Jesus do ? He called the children 
to him. He took a little child and set him in the 
midst. Indifference does not call or take. 

He took them in his arms and blessed them. 
Here is personal contact and an outflow of his 
own spirit into theirs. 

He recognized and spoke of those qualities in 
the children which were pleasing to him. He 
knew each little heart with all its possibilities of 
evil, but he spoke especially of those things which 
rendered them fit subjects for the kingdom of 
heaven. This drew the hearts of the little ones to 
him. Christ establisheJ a sympathetic relation 
with the children. 

He did not attempt to teach theological truth to 
the little ones. He did not find fault with them. 
But he opened his heart and took them in, and 
they knew it. 

If we can only get God's thoughts about leading 
the children we shall be safe. We need to know 
his mind far more than we need normal methods, 
though these are good in their place. Our Lord's 
method is the normal method. 

' It is wonderful how the few recorded words as 
to our Lord's method of dealing with the children 
broaden and deepen as we look at them in the 
light of his life and teachings, and surely no study, 



100 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

no searching after "methods," no comparing of 
"plans," can be so helpful as the quiet, loving, 
prayerful following out of a line of thought and 
work suggested by the Master's own ways and 
words. 

Still, we may help one another by a willingness 
to give what we have ourselves received. If we 
have learned by practical experience that it is well 
to gather the children into little companies outside 
the Sunday school, where they may be taught the 
way of Christ more perfectly, we should not only 
be glad to do it ourselves, but help and encourage 
others to do so. 

As a general thing the primary teacher is the 
natural leader of the children's meeting. The 
children love her, trust her, look up to her. Not 
only is this true of the primary class, but those 
who have been members of the class and have 
passed on into the main school will gather around 
the beloved teacher of other days as about no 
other one. 

Perhaps a real experience may be more helpful 
than any general directions. 

It was a city church of four or five hundred 
members. There was no children's meeting held 
in the church, save occasionally for a few weeks 
in the winter following a season of unusual relig- 
ious interest. The primary teacher, a comparative 
stranger, was urged to start one. 

The first question was how to gather children. 
A general invitation from the pulpit and in the 



THE CHILDREN'S MEETING. 101 

Sunday school will always bring a few, but only a 
few ; children easily forget day, hour, and place. 
Invitation cards were printed, and given out on 
the Sunday before the opening of the meeting, 
through the Sunday school. Each child between 
the ages of seven and fourteen received one. The 
card was an attractive one, and read thus : 

A Children's Meeting 

Will be held Friday afternoons at four o'clock in the ■ 

Church. 
Ten Lessons about Bible Children. 
Oct. 22. The First Boys. 

44 29. The Baby Found by a Princess. 
Nov. 5. The Good Brother. 
" 12. The Boy who Heard the Lord Speak. 
44 19. The Missionary Maid. 
" 26. The Boy who Fought a Giant. 
Dec. 3. The Temperance Band. 
44 10. The Girl who Saved her People. 
44 17. The Boy who Studied the Bible. 
44 24. The Child Jesus. 
44 Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, 
to come unto me." — Matt. 19. 14. 

The general program for the meeting, which 
occupied just one hour, was something like this : 

Singing. Beatitudes. 

Creed. Singing. 

Prayer. Lesson. 

Singing. Singing. 

Bible Reading (by children, Social ten minutes. 

each child reciting verse). Short Prayers. 

Commandments, or Doxology. 
Books of Bible, or 



102 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

The essential to order iri a meeting of children 
is an interesting variety. The longest exercise 
should not occupy more than fifteen minutes. 
The Catechism may be preferred in place of the 
Commandments, etc. The " social " may be made 
both interesting and profitable. Encourage chil- 
dren to ask questions, to present requests for 
prayer, to speak of difficulties, to record encour- 
agements, and to " bear testimony " to what they 
know of the Saviour's love. Care must be taken 
that they do not fall into formal habits. The 
great object of the meeting is to bring Jesus and 
the children together, and as they learn to recog- 
nize his presence, they will learn to speak simply 
and naturally of their relations to him, and may 
also be taught to speak with childlike freedom to 
him. 

A number of years ago a young girl of fourteen 
was drawn to the Saviour's side. Her father, a 
thoughtful Christian, believed that the child's way 
into the kingdom was a gradual one, not marked 
by any special change. But his little daughter 
knew when she was converted, and her newborn 
joy found constant overflow in speech and act. 

There were four younger children in the family, 
and it was not long before they wanted " to be 
converted " too; the natural result of the real life 
they saw in their sister. She asked and received 
permission to take them to the prayer meeting. 
The little company, pleased and expectant, 
were ready to do just as sister told them. " But," 



THE CHILDREN'S MEETING. 103 

said the simple-hearted child, " I didn't know any- 
thing to do but just to say, 'Jesus, here are the 
children ! ' and ' Children, here is Jesus ! ' " 

And they were all converted ! 

"Did it last?" some one queries. O, yes. 
Even six-year-old Robbie learned the sweet way 
of obedience *and trust, and never lost his way ! 
Four years later one of these converted children 
went to her heavenly home with smile and song 
upon her lips, and the others are still following 
the Lord of the children ! 

The sister, who became a successful worker 
among the young, never found a better way to 
lead young souls than the simple, divinely-taught 
way in which she led her little brothers and sis- 
ters. She went on saying, " Jesus, here are the 
children," and " Children, here is Jesus." What 
more is needed ? 

The Christ who took the little ones in his kind 
arms surely does not need to be persuaded, and 
the child who is brought face to face with him is 
not likely to refuse his outstretched arms! 

Let us " bring them together," the children and 
the Saviour of children! Let us speak to them 
of Jesus. Let us tell them of his life for them, of 
his death on the cross for them, and help them to 
see that this is the Jesus who is waiting for them. 
There is danger that in the multitude of things 
which the children are called to see and hear in 
some children's meetings they may fail to see and 
hear just Jesus. Machinery and methods have 



104 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

their uses, but alas for them when they crowd 
out the present, visible, personal Christ ! Not that 
they are opposed to him, indeed, but that they 
take the time which is his. 

The meeting which is full of entertainment 
cannot be full of the heavenly teaching which 
feeds and builds up. " But," you s*ay, " we must 
entertain the children, or we cannot hold them." 

The most successful children's meeting we have 
ever known was held in a large village, year after 
year, Sunday afternoons — the Sunday school was 
held in the morning. Children of all ages attended 
it, including many very young children. It was 
never continued more than three quarters of an 
hour, and the exercises were all of the most simple 
and direct character without any attempt at amus- 
ing the children, or trying to u hold " them. 

Young Christians often brought little friends 
there who had not yet given their hearts to Jesus, 
and such were always made welcome. Many 
learned the way of life in that meeting, and from 
time to time little groups graduated into the church 
from the children's meeting. The pastor knew that 
he was quite safe in receiving them, for wise teach- 
ing and a constant, brooding love followed them. 

In gathering the children for such a meeting it 
may not always be expedient to send out printed 
cards. Cheap picture cards, the prettier the 
better, may be used with the invitation, day, hour, 
and place, written out plainly. If you prepare a 
series of lesson subjects, which is desirable, these 



THE CHILDREN'S MEETING. 105 

may be neatly written on the back of the cards. 
Have a sufficient number prepared to give one or 
more to children at your first meeting who will 
use them to bring in other children. 

Form a little choir to help on the singing as 
soon as possible. The more children can be en- 
listed to do something the better. A little sense 
of responsibility will serve as a reminder often- 
times. 

Keep a roll, in a pretty little book, and let 
the children know how much you desire to have a 
well-kept, well-filled book. To make this possible, 
they must be in their places promptly. 

Make much of the Bible ! You may teach 
reverence by the very manner in which you handle 
the holy book, and the tone in which you speak 
of it! 

This page from a visitor's notebook holds a 
valuable suggestion: 

The leader of the children's meeting stood with the large 
Bible in her hand, ready for the " Bible exercise." 

" Where is the lesson to-day, children ? " she asked. 

As book, chapter, and verse were printed plainly on the 
board, a goodly number of the children responded promptly. 

"What do we call the big book in which all our lessons 
are found ? " was the next question. 

" The Bible," was the very general response. 

" What are the two parts of the Bible called ? " 

" The Old Testament and the New Testament." 

" Willie, will you show me the part of the Bible which we 
call the Old Testament ? " 

Willie came forward at once, and, opening to the Old 
Testament, held the book up before the school. A little girl 



106 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

was then called forward to show where to look for the New 
Testament in the same manner. I noted especially how the 
children reflected the teacher's tone and manner in handling 
and speaking of " the holy book." 

The teacher then questioned the class as to the number of 
books in the Old Testament, and also in the New, and asked 
in which the Gospel of John was to be found. Many of the 
children replied correctly. A child was then called forward 
to find the Book of John, and another to find the chapter in 
which the lesson was written. Then all who could find the 
lesson in their own little Testaments were told to do so, and 
these joined in the responsive reading of the lesson. A few of 
the children had left their Testaments at home. These re- 
mained seated while the others stood and read. 

The whole exercise consumed but a short time, and I 
could but think that if some method of this kind were more 
generally followed there would be less ignorance among our 
boys and girls concerning the book. 

Before closing, the teacher asked how many children had 
read daily from their own Testaments. Over a dozen 
responded. Nearly all had read several times during the 
week. With a smiling reminder not to forget to bring the 
book the next Sunday, they were dismissed. 

" They are very proud of their red Testaments," said the 
teacher. " They have had them nearly three months, and I 
have promised all who keep them neatly six months, and 
read them at home every day, a pretty Bible at the end of 
that time." 

A little "after-meeting" may be developed 
after a time. Give three quarters of an hour to 
the general meeting, then invite all Christian 
children and all desiring to become such to remain 
for fifteen minutes. Gather them close about 
you. Help them to make their little wants known 
here, as they could not perhaps in the presence of 



THE CHILDREN'S MEETING. \Oj 

unsympathetic listeners. You will be surprised to 
learn what is going on in little hearts ! Here you 
may teach to pray, to testify, to make known 
desires, as would be quite impossible in a large 
class of thoughtless children. This little after- 
meeting will come to be a real winnowing fan, and 
you will thank the dear Father that you were 
ever led to use it ! 

A connected series of lesson subjects is not in- 
dispensable, but it is desirable. The children 
know what is coming next, and feel a little interest 
in advance. At the close of the eight, or ten, or 
a dozen lessons, as the case may be, a " looking 
back " meeting may be held, gathering up the 
spiritual teachings of the course, and seeking to 
impress them anew. 

In these days of Junior Epworth Leagues, of 
Junior Christian Endeavor, of Mission Bands, 
of Young Crusaders, or Juvenile Temperance 
Work, under some other name, there may be 
danger of the multiplication of meetings even 
among the little folks. 

Why may not the children's meeting or Junior 
League be made to embrace the different lines of 
work ? Give one meeting in the month to mis- 
sions, another to temperance, and the others to 
Bible study and the development of the religious 
life. 



CHAPTER XII. 
TEMPERANCE TEACHING IN THE PRIMARY CLASS. 

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

TT is quite possible that as primary teachers we 
* have not felt ourselves called to temperance 
work. We see the ravages of the enemy in the 
uncared for childhood that struggles into the Sun- 
day school fold, and our hearts are moved to pity, 
sometimes to indignation, as we see the slaughter 
of the innocents carried on before our very eyes ! 
But what can we do about it ? 

Have we thought that our specific work in this 
line may be in the dear little class which God has 
given us ? 

The teacher of the Temperance School or the 
Band of Hope, or the Loyal Legion, has no better 
opportunity, perhaps, not so good a one, as has the 
teacher of the primary class. For hers is the first, 
and therefore the best chance. Next to the moth- 
er, the primary teacher has the happy privilege of 
sowing seed on virgin soil, and may look with 
large hope for abundant fruitage. 

Here, then, is your field for temperance work, 
dear primary teacher. You do not have to go out 
to find your pupils ; they are ready and waiting 



TEMPERANCE TEACHING. IO9 

for you. You do not have to win their confidence ; 
it is yours already. You do not have to seek a 
season for giving specific instruction along these 
lines ; no doubt little sufferers from the vice are 
before you. 

All the furnishing these young minds and hearts 
can get through you they will need in the perilous 
days to come. For the evil is everywhere. It in- 
vades the church and the school, as well as the 
home. It hides in dainty confections ; it lurks in 
delicate flavors on the home table ; it even steals 
an entrance through the physician's prescription. 
The child sees its traces in its more hideous forms, 
and shrinks from it in horror ; but how shall the 
monstrous evil be recognized when it knocks so 
gently at the door, and enters with a gay smile and 
pleasant word upon the lips? 

Ah ; we cannot be too prompt with our earnest 
warning, and our direct pointed teaching aimed 
straight at the heart of the giant evil! for the years go 
fast, and before we are aware some of these little 
ones may be struggling in the toils of the serpent. 

Shall we not, then, while we may, hold out a 
helping hand to the little brothers and sisters so 
soon to go forth and meet the dragon ? 

But, you say, the lesson hour is already full to 
overflowing. How can we make room for temper- 
ance teaching ? If we use our one little hour each 
week to pour in Bible truth are we not doing our 
whole duty ? What better armor can we furnish 
our little ones in which to stand against temptation 



IIO THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

than the armor of Gospel truth? Is it not enough, 
in short, if we teach the children to spell temper- 
ance, C-H-R-I-S-T? 

We must indeed spell it thus, but we must teach 
the alphabet before we can expect the children to 
spell at all. They must be taught what intemper- 
ance is, what causes it, where and how it begins to 
grow, and why it needs a mighty Christ to cure it. 

A teacher in a temperance school was one day 
explaining the process of fermentation, and show- 
ing how the harmless juices of the apple, the grape, 
and other fruits may thus be changed into the 
active destruction which we name alcohol. 

An intelligent looking man sat among the chil- 
dren an interested listener. At the close he came 
forward and said to the .teacher, "'Madam, I spent 
fifteen years of my life in the liquor business, and 
in all those years I never knew as much about 
alcohol as you have taught these children to-day. 
If I had known what it was, my life might have 
been a very different one ! Go on teaching the 
children, madam ! Go on ! " 

" My people are destroyed [cut off] for lack of 
knowledge," saith the Lord. 

If we can crowd into our little hour the simple, 
underlying principles of temperance, some pre- 
cious lives mav be saved from the destruction to 
which ignorance too often leads. 

Two questions are before us: "What can the 
primary teacher do ? " and " When and how shall 
she do it ? " 



TEMPERANCE TEACHING. Ill 

What can the primary teacher do ? She can 
look the subject fairly in the face. If not already 
informed, she can seek information concerning the 
extent of the evil. She can learn what is actually 
being done by earnest temperance workers in be- 
half of the children, and she can seriously ask 
"What is my own duty in the matter?" By the 
time she has done these things she will probably 
be ready to go farther. 

Perhaps she will decide to form a Band of Hope, 
or a Loyal Legion, in her own class, to meet on a 
week day. 

But there are many teachers who will not be 
able to do this. They will ask the question, 
"When and how?" in a half despairing tone. 
Let us look at it together for a moment. 

Can we not add five minutes to the hour given 
to the little ones ? If this does not seem best, then 
let us subtract five minutes from the time usually 
given to singing. Five minutes each week gives 
over four hours of solid instruction in the course 
of a year. 

Have a definite time for the temperance teach- 
ing, and use every second of it. This will make 
thorough preparation for it a necessity. 

Do not attempt too much. Be willing to do a 
very little at a time, but be sure that the little is 
well done. 

Send to Miss Julia Colman, Bible House, New 
York city, for her Pri??iary Temperance Catechism 
and Juvenile Temperance Manual. If the cate- 



112 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

chism at the close of this chapter is not satisfac- 
tory, you can easily make such a catechism as you 
desire from these helps. Teach one question and 
answer each Sunday. Let the question be the 
pivot around which the lesson revolves. The 
Juvenile Temperance Manual is full of fact, inci- 
dent, and illustration. And almost any community, 
alas ! will furnish illustrations to point any moral 
which we may seek to impress. 

A temperance ladder can be devised, with very 
little trouble or expense, which will keep the sub- 
ject before the school. Tack a sheet of cardboard 
to the wall, make a ladder upon it, and as you 
climb it, indicate question and answer by capital 
letters, or a word, if you please. 

Let the school see alcohol burn in a spoon when 
you are telling what it does for the stomach. The 
illustration is old, but it will be fresh to most of 
the children. 

Bring a little bottle of sweet cider to the school- 
room, that you may be able to show fermentation 
in its various stages. 

Let the children see the fiery fluid alcohol cook 
the albumen of an egg, and learn thus the paralyz- 
ing power it must have upon the brain when carried 
thither by the swift moving currents of the blood. 
There will be absorbed attention and earnest 
thought. And this is onlv a hint in the direction 
of a long series of possible lessons drawn from 
sources just at hand. 

There is no lack of good temperance literature 



TEMPERANCE TEACHING. 113 

in these days. If possible give a bright temper- 
ance paper as often as once a month. 

The Young Crusader, published at The Tem- 
ple, Chicago, 111., is a most winsome little sheet. 

The Temperance Banner is published by Stearns 
& Company, 58 Reade Street, New York city, and 
is also very readable. 

Perhaps the best of the many temperance song 
books is published by the Woman's Temperance 
Publishing Association, The Temple, Chicago, 
111. It is entitled Marching Songs for Young Cru- 
saders, and is packed full of songs which are lively 
and stirring, and of superior literary merit as well. 

The same house publishes a fine line of leaflets, 
tracts, and cards, especially adapted to Sunday 
school use. 

The Methodist Book Concern, 150 Fifth Ave- 
nue, New York city, also publishes temperance 
tracts, among which we specially mention Our 
Temperance Story Series and The Temperance Pic- 
torial Series. Let the superintendent or teacher 
send for a catalogue and make selections. 

The National Temperance Society, 58 Reade 
Street, New York city, also publishes a great 
variety of temperance tracts for children. Four- 
page tracts, illustrated, are sold at two dollars a 
thousand. 

Miss Colman, Bible House, New York city, 
keeps constantly on hand a large variety of tem- 
perance tracts and cards, and is skilled in making 
wise selections. 



114 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

As often as once a month let a good temperance 
tract be given out. Make a personal request that 
the children carry these home. The simple story 
or carefully prepared information may teach a 
needed lesson and work a blessed change in some 
sad, drink-cursed home. 

At the blessed Christmas time put a gay little 
card inside every box of candy. These cards are 
very attractive, each bearing some appropriate 
temperance motto, and are furnished at very low 
rates. 

In all this let us remember that little hands can 
scatter seed in places which we cannot reach. Let 
us furnish the seed ! 

The wise superintendent will see to it that the 
little ones of the primary class are furnished with 
cards and papers as well as the older ones. No 
matter if they cannot read the papers. Some one 
at home can, and the little ones are more likely to 
win attention to their wares than are the older 
ones. 

A question that seriously perplexes many ear- 
nest teachers is this : " Shall we offer the pledge to 
the children ? " 

It is believed in some schools that temperance is 
taught when a pledge roll has been hung upon the 
wall, and members of the school have been urged 
to sign it. 

No child should be asked to sign the pledge who 
has not been led up to it by intelligent teaching. 
Let the pledge roll hang upon the wall, by all 



TEMPERANCE TEACHING. 115 

means> but -not until a demand for it has been 
created. Some who have been taught at home or 
in the -temperance school will be ready at once to 
sign the pledge. Others will want to do it simply 
because their friends do. This readiness to prom- 
ise without thought should be discouraged. A 
serious talk about the binding force of a promise 
should be given before any are allowed to sign the 
pledge. 

The definite teaching on temperance may well go 
on for two or three months before a pledge roll is 
secured. Let it be as attractive as can be afforded, 
and hung in a conspicuous place. Choose one with 
as simple and comprehensive a pledge as can be 
found, which should be clearly explained. No 
child should be allowed to sign it upon the impulse 
of the moment. It is well to require the children 
to talk with their parents and secure their consent 
before signing at all. 

As name after name is added to the list the su- 
perintendent will do well to recognize what the 
children have done by some word of commenda- 
tion, advice, or warning from time to time ; above 
all, frequently asking the Father, who notes the 
smallest act of the smallest child, to help these 
children to keep the promise they have made. 

The pledge may prove a safeguard, and that it 
may be we must hedge it about with precept, 
promise, and prayer. 

That even young children do understand the 
meaning of a pledge has been proved over and over 



Il6 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

again. This case, true in every particular, is one 
of many similar : 

Four-year-old Willie begged to sign the pledge 
at a great temperance meeting. His mother laughed 
and allowed it. 

A year later Willie lay at death's door. One day 
the doctor ordered whisky to be given at intervals. 
Willie was supposed to be unconscious, but his 
blue eyes opened, and he whispered, " I can't take 
it, mamma." 

The mother urged and commanded, but the child 
repeated, " I signed the pledge, you know, mamma." 

At last his mother said, " Then, Willie, you will 
die." 

" Let me die, then, mamma ; I can't drink 
whisky, you know." 

Willie did not take the whisky, nor did he die. 
He deserved to live by reason of his pluck. 

We want to remember that the temperance teach- 
ing is not confined to the children. They are busy 
little talkers, and they live the lessons over at 
home. Let them carry home Bible principles, 
facts, illustrations, all bearing upon this great 
question of the day, and the seed will not be scat- 
tered in vain. As sure as God's promise is true, it 
will bring forth fruit. 

A few simple exercises to be used in the primary 
class are given in the supplementary helps. The 
teacher who sees the enormity of this evil which 
menaces our children will be on the lookout for 
helps in this direction. 



HELPS AND EXERCISES. 



" O let me still 
Write thee great God, and me a little child. 1 



HELPS INTEMPERANCE TEACHING. 



Recitation. 



God made everything good. But man has put some of 
his good gifts to evil uses. 

Grapes are very delicious fruit. How sweet and pleasant 
they taste ! It does us good to eat them. God made them 
to do us good. But he did not make them to do us harm. 

This is how they can be made to do harm : Men gather 
the sweet, ripe grapes and press out the juice. The juice is 
sweet while it is fresh. But it will soon begin to spoil. 
Then little bubbles rise to the top. This shows that it has 
begun to "work," or ferment. The sugar of the grapes 
decays, and part of it changes into a poison called alcohol. 

Now, is it not strange that some people like the grape 
juice better after the poison gets into it ? It makes them 
feel bright and meny for a little while, and they think they 
are having a very happy time. 

But O, what evil and sorrow come from it ! God looks 
down upon all the sin and suffering caused by strong drink. 
He sees how wicked and foolish the people are who are 
deceived by it. He says, " Woe unto them ! " 

A Pledge for Very Little Folks. 

I will never, never dare 

Drink, or smoke, or lie, or swear ! 

If I try I can be true 

To this pledge, and so can you. 



120 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Questions and Answers. 
(A dialogue for two boys.) 

" Do you know 
Who hath woe ? " 

" Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they 
may follow strong drink." — Isa. 5. II. 

" Can you tell, 

Listen well, 

Who hath sorrow ? " 
" They that tarry long at the wine." — Prov. 23. 30. 

" Who contend 

Without end ? " 
" Them that are mighty to drink wine." — Isa. 5. 22. 

"Who cry out, 

Sing and shout, 

Vainly speak 

Words so weak ? " 
"Wine is a mocker." — Prov. 20. I. 

"Who will fight 

Day and night ? " 
" Strong drink is raging : whosoever is deceived thereby is 
not wise." — Prov. 20. 1. 

Recitation. 

(For a little boy.) 
The first little drop of strong drink that is taken 

Is the first step to ruin : this children may know, 
If the first little drop be in earnest forsaken 

We shall never be drunkards, O, never, no ! no ! — Sel. 

A Great Giant. 

(Recitation for a boy or girl.) 

I always like to read about giants, how strong they were, 

and what wonderful things they did. We don't have that 

kind of people nowadays ; once in a while we see a big, tall 

man, but ho is nothing like Goliath and the people I have 



TEMPERANCE HELPS. 



121 



read of. I have found, though, that there is one very old and 
wicked giant still living. He has done a great deal of mis- 
chief and evil. I will tell you about him : 

He is nearly six thousand years old !* He dresses in rags. 
His face is cut and bruised. Sometimes he is crazy and does 
not know what he is saying to anybody. He has built a 
great many prisons in the world, and he has put all the men 
and women he could catch into them. When he gets the 
fathers and mothers into prison he takes away the children's 
bread, and they starve to death. His name is Giant In- 
temperance. I hate him and am going to fight him. Will 
you help? The way to fight him is by drinking cold water 
and trying to get everybody else to do so. God will help us 
as we fight against him. 



Recitation. 

(By three boys.) 
First Boy. *' If every little boy and girl, 
From every land and clime, 
Would go at once to Temperance Town, 

And stay there all the time, 
What do you think would happen? " 

Second Boy. " The saloons would put their shutters up, 
And never take them down, 
If every little boy and girl 

Were safe in Temperance Town." 

Third Boy. "Why ! what would make the owners do it?" 

First Boy. " They'd have to : they couldn't make enough 
To buy a loaf of bread, 
With all the little children safe, 
And all the drunkards dead." 

Third Boy. " Of course ! if you would make a rabbit pie, 
You first must catch your rabbit ; 
If you'd have boys make drunken men, 

First teach them the drink habit ! " — J. B. P. 



122 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Some Simple Object Lessons. 

Two small bottles, one filled with water, the other with 
alcohol. The children will see no difference in the looks 
of the two fluids. Tell that God made one, and man made 
the other. Pour some of the alcohol into a spoon and set 
fire to it. Let the children see it burn. Light a piece of 
paper in the flame. Try to burn some of the water in the 
same way. 



Take a lily, or some other beautiful flower, to the class. 
Call attention to its beauty and perfume. Explain that it 
needs food and drink, as children do. Sprinkle pure cold 
water upon it, and let the children see that it only makes it 
look more fresh and beautiful. Then sprinkle alcohol upon 
it, and let the children see how it droops and dies ! 



Fill a wide-mouthed bottle of clear glass two thirds full of 
fresh apple juice, and keep it in a warm place until it begins 
to work. Take it to the class, and let the children see the un- 
cleanness that rises to the top. Teach that the sugar in the 
juice is decaying, and that the bubbles which they see are a 
sign that alcohol has begun to form. 



Take two living insects of some kind (large black ants 
can be as readily found as any, perhaps) to the class. Pro- 
duce your two bottles of clear fluid, grown familiar by this 
time. Pour a little of the water upon one of the insects, and 
let the children see him make haste to escape. Then drop 
a little of the alcohol upon the remaining insect, and let the 
children see the sad effect. 



Take a fresh egg to the class. Open the end, and let the 
albumen out into a clear glass tumbler. Tell the children 
that you will show them what alcohol does to the brain, the 
part we think with. Explain that a large part of the brain is 
albumen, and that the alcohol reaches the brain through the 



TEMPERANCE HELPS. 1 23 

blood, which carries it to every part of the body. Now, pour 
alcohol upon the albumen in the glass, and let the children 
see how it gradually hardens or cooks it. 



Take decayed fruit, apples and grapes, to the class. Let 
the children see them, and smell them. Who would eat 
such fruit ? Yet the alcohol in cider and wine comes from 
just such decay as this ! 

Recitation. 

Little drops of claret, 

Now and then at first, 
Form an awful habit 

And a dreadful thirst. 

Little drops of brandy, 

Little drops of rye, 
Make the mighty toper 

And the watery eye. — Sel. 

Another. 

A very little boy am I, 

I never swear, I never lie, 

I never drink, or smoke, or chew, 

And never will ! Now, what say you ? — Sel. 

Another. 

The drink that's in the drunkard's bowl 

Is not the drink for me ! 
It kills his body and his soul ; 

How sad a sight is he ! 
But there's a drink that God has given, 
Distilling in the showers of heaven, 

In measures large and free, 

O, that's the drink for me ! — Sel. 



124 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Our Pledge. 

A pledge we make no wine to take, 
Nor brandy red to turn the head, 
Nor whisky hot that makes the sot, 
Nor fiery rum that ruins home. 

We will not sin by drinking gin, 
Away we fling the punch and sling, 
Hard cider, too, will never do, 
Nor brewer's beer our hearts to cheer. 

To quench our thirst we always bring 
Cold water from the well or spring ; 
So here we pledge perpetual hate 
To all that can intoxicate ! — Sel. 

A Promise to God. 

(Cardinal Manning's pledge.) 
I promise thee, sweet Lord, 

That I will never cloud the light 
Which shines from thee within my soul 

And makes my reason bright. 
Nor ever will I lose the power 

To serve thee by my will, 
Which thou hast set within my heart 

Thy precepts to fulfill. 

O, let me drink as Adam drank, 

Before from thee he fell ; 
O, let me drink as thou, dear Lord, 

When faint by Sychar's well, 
That from my childhood, pure from sin, 

Of drink and drunken strife, 
By the clear fountain I may rest, 

Of everlasting life. 

A Responsive Exercise. 

Leader. — " Hear me now, O ye children," What does God 
say about wine ? 



TEMPERANCE HELPS. 1 25 

School. — "Wine is a mocker." 
L. — What does he say about strong drink ? 
S. — " Strong drink is raging. " 

L. — What does he say about him that giveth his neighbor 
drink ? 

S. — " Woe unto him." 

L. — Who does he say shall come to poverty? 

S. — " The drunkard and the glutton." 

L. — Who does he say shall not be rich ? 

S. — " He that loveth wine and oil." 

L. — Who does God say has sorrow and quarrels and wounds ? 

S. — "They that tarry long at the wine." 

L. — When should we not look upon the wine? 

S.—" When it is red." 

Z. — What does it do at the last ? 

S.— " It biteth like a serpent." 

L. — What more does it do ? 

S. — " It stingeth like an adder." 

A Tiny Temperance Catechism. 

Who made all things ? God. 

What has he made for our use ? Plenty of good food 
and drink. 

How does he want us to use his gifts ? In the right way. 

What is the right way ? In his way. 

What are some of his good gifts ? Fruits and grains, 

What is made from grapes ? Wine. 

What is made from apples ? Cider. 

What is made from grains ? Beer and Whisky. 

What is made from sugar-cane ? Rum. 

What is in these drinks that harms ? Alcohol. 

What is alcohol ? A fluid poison. 

Does God make alcohol? No ; man makes it. 

How does he make it ? By spoiling good things. 

[Show apple or grape juice in a state of fermentation.] 

Is there alcohol in cider ? Yes, after it spoils, or fer- 
ments. 



126 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

What is it in fruits that spoils and makes alcohol ? The 
sugar. 

What are some of the stronger drinks ? Whisky, brandy, 
rum, and gin. 

What makes them stronger than wine and cider and beer ? 
There is more alcohol in them. 

Is it safe to drink anything that has alcohol in it ? No ; it is 
not safe. 

What harm does alcohol do? It hurts the body. 

What do we feel with ? Our nerves. 

What does alcohol do to the nerves ? It deadens them. 

What can they not do then ? Feel truly. 

When our nerves do not feel truly, what happens ? We do 
not act truly. 

What does alcohol do to the stomach ? It makes it sick 
and sore. 

What does it do to the brain ? It hurts it badly. 

What is the brain ? The part of us that thinks. 

Can we think right if we drink alcohol ? No ; we shall 
think wrong. 

[Show how alcohol cooks the white of an egg.] 

If a man thinks wrong and acts wrong, what will follow? 
Sin and sorrow. 

What does alcohol do every year ? Kills thousands of people. 

What will all wise people do ? Let it alone. 

Who has said, " Touch not ?" God. 

What does he ask us not to touch ? Anything that will 
harm us. 

Who shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven ? The drunk- 
ard. 

Who says so ? God. 

What good drink has God given ? Pure water. 

What live and grow by this drink? Plants and flowers 
and animals. 

[Show the effect of alcohol upon a flower.] 

What will a wise, good child do ? Never touch strong drink. 



CHRISTMAS HELPS. 



[No celebration, or " Festival," at Christmas lime should 
prevent the teacher of the little ones from gathering them 
about her to celebrate the birth of the " Friend of little chil- 
dren." 

If it is impossible to do this on Christmas Day, let it be 
done on the Sabbath nearest Christmas. 

Some simple preparation will be needed, although the songs 
prepared for the public gathering can be used. 

Have the class room trimmed with greens, and a large, gilt 
paper star fastened to the blackboard. 

By all means, let giving be made a prominent part of the 
exercise. The children will enjoy their own gifts far more, if 
they have been shown how they may also give. Books and 
toys may be brought to send to some poorer school, or to pack 
in a missionary box to be sent away. 

Or, each child may bring a pound of some kind of food to 
be given to the poor. Or, little envelopes may be distributed 
previously and a missionary offering be taken. 

In some way help the children to see and enjoy their priv- 
ilege of giving.] 

Teacher. — Whose birth do we come to celebrate to-day? 

Class. — The birth of Jesus Chrijt. 

T. — Where was Jesus born ? 

C. — In Bethlehem of Judea. 

T. — Who sang in the skies when he came? 

C— L The holy angels. 

Singing by Class. 



128 



THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 



Giving of Thanks on Christmas Day. 

Teacher. For Christmas morning, bright and clear, 
Class. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For Christmas happiness and cheer, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father. 

T. For Christmas candy. Christmas toys, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father; 

T. For Christmas love and Christmas joys, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father. 

T. For Jesus, born a little child, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father; 

T. For Jesus, loving, kind, and mild, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father. 

T. For Jesus Christ, the children's Friend, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father; 

T. For Christ, who helps us to life's end, 
C. We thank our heavenly Father. 



Recitation. 

(By three little boys.) 

First Boy. " On Christmas day, far, far away, 
A little Baby slumbering lay ; 
Starlight was shed upon his bed, 
And round his fair and lowly head." 

Second Boy. "The angels sung, the blue sky rung, 

And all the earth looked bright and young. 
'Twas God's own Son, come down alone, 
To make our little souls his own." 

Third Boy. " Dear Lord above, teach me thy love, 
Make me thy gentle, spotless dove, 
To find my nest within thy breast, 
And there in peace and safety rest." 

— Rose Terry, 



CHRISTMAS HELPS. I2Q 

Echo Prayer. 

(Preceded by the prayer in rhyme. See page 164) 
Holy Lord, who came to show 
How a child may live below, 
Gentle, patient, meek, and mild, 
Like the blessed Saviour Child, 
Hear us as to thee we pray 
On our happy Christmas Day. 

Singing by Class. 

Reading the Christmas Story from the Bible, by Teacher. 

The Holy Child. 

(A Christmas exercise for six children.) 
Class in Concert. — "Where, tell us where, is the Holy 
Child ? " 
First Child. " Listen, a child can tell : 

A heart of love is the blessed place 
Where the Holy Child may dwell." 

Class in Concert. — " When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came 
wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that 
is born King of the Jews ? " — Matt. 2. I, 2. 

Class.— " What is the name of the Holy Child ? " 
Second Child. "Jesus his name shall be, 

Because he has loved his people so 
From sin he has set them free.'' 
Concert. — " Thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall save 
his people from their sins." — Matt. I. 21. 

Class. — "What tidings bringeth the Holy Child?" 
Third Child. '' Mercy he comes to bring ; 

Peace and good will to all men below, 
And glory to God our King." 
Concert. — " Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people." — Luke 2. 10. 

Class.— u What are the works of the Holy Child ? " 
9 



130 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Fourth Child. " Great joy he comes to give ; 

The blind, the deaf, and the lame he cures. 

And the dead he makes to live." 

Concert. — " Go your way, and tell . . . what things ye have 

seen and heard ; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the 

lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the 

poor the Gospel is preached." — Luke 7. 22. 

Class.— " What was the life of the Holy Child? " 
Fifth Child. " 'Twas a life of pain and loss ; 

A life that was given in holy love, 
For our sins, upon the cross." 
Concert. — " He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor- 
rows." — Isa. 53. 4. 

Sixth Child. "What shall we bring to the Holy Child, 
Who come his birth to sing ? " 
Class. " Hearts full of love, and a crown of praise, 

For the Holy Child, our King." 
Concert. — " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name 
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The 
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." — Isa. 9. 6. 
Singing by Class. 
Christmas Story told by Teacher. 

Recitation. — A Christmas Bed. 

(By a little girl.) 

For velvets soft and silken stuff 
Thou hadst but hay and straw so rough, 
Wherein thou, King, so rich and great, 
As 'twere thy heaven, art throned in state. 

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, 
Make thee a bed, soft, undented, 
Within my heart, that it may be 
A quiet chamber kept for thee ! 

— Martin Luther. 



CHRISTMAS HELPS. 131 

Recitation. — The Thornless Rose. 

(By little girl, holding a rose.) 
Our Saviour Christ was born 
That we might have the Rose without a thorn : 
The cruel crown was placed upon the brow 
That smiles upon us from his glory now. 

And so he won — to make them ours — 

Sweet, thornless, everlasting flowers ; 

Then praise the Lord, who came on Christmas Day, 

To give the Rose and take the thorns away. 

— Frances Ridley Havergal. 

Sing, " Praise him, praise him," Little Pilgrim Songs. 
A Talk about giving, by Teacher. 

[The children's offerings should be made upon entering the 
room, especially if they are-in packages. 

Receptacles may be provided, but " Teacher " must be pres- 
ent to receive each offering in a sympathetic spirit, or the 
child will miss much of the joy of giving. 

If the offering is in money, it may be received after the talk 
on giving, with some appropriate ceremony, followed by an 
echo prayer in which the gifts are offered to Jesus. 

Following this the distribution of gifts, a glad Christmas 
song, and Mizpah.] 



EASTER HELPS. 



Easter Motto. 

("The Lord is Risen, Indeed.") 

[Have the motto cut from gilt paper in large letters strung 
on fine thread, and hung in a conspicuous place. On the 
table have a lily in bloom, growing in the earth, a butterfly 
and a cocoon, a bird's nest with eggs, and a pretty bird in a 
cage.] 

Teacher. — "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye 
lifted up, ye everlasting doors ; " 

Class. — "And the King of glory shall come in," 

T.— " Who is this King of glory?" 

C. — " The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." 

T. — "Our Lord has risen from the dead." 

C. — "The Lord is risen, indeed." 

Sing. Christ the Lord is risen to-day, 

Hallelujah ! 
Sons of men and angels say, 
Hallelujah ! 
Refrain : Lift the gates of paradise, 

Ope the portals of the skies : 
Christ has risen and we shall rise, 
Hallelujah ! 

Raise your joys and triumphs high, 

Hallelujah ! 
Sing ye heavens : thou earth reply, 

Hallelujah ! (Re/.) 



EASTER HELPS. 1 33 

Love's redeeming work is done, 

Hallelujah ! 
Fought the fight, the victory won, 
Hallelujah! (Ref.) 
— From Melodies for Little Children. 
Copyright, 1891, by Hunt & Eaton. 

Easter Thanks. 

Teacher. For the coming again of Easter Day, 
Class. Our Father, we thank thee ! 

T. For the open tomb and the stone rolled away, 

C. Our Father, we thank thee ! 

T. For the merry, caroling birds that sing, 
C. Our Father, we thank thee ! 

T. For the joyful peal of the bells that ring, 
C. Our Father, we thank thee ! 

T. For our Lord who is risen from the dead, 

C. Our Father, we thank thee ! 

T. For our gladness in him, our risen Head, 

C. Our Father, we thank thee ! 

Bible Reading.— John 20. 1-18. 

(By Teacher.) 

Recitation. 

(By child, holding a spring blossom.) 

" Little blossom, come to bring 
Tidings of the welcome spring, 
Tell me now, and tell me true, 
What the spring has said to you." 

" Child, this story sweet and clear, 
Spring is whispering in my ear," 
Soft and low the blossom said, 
11 * Christ is risen from the dead.' " 



134 



THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 



Echo Prayer. 

On this happy Easter day, 
Risen Christ, to thee we pray : 
Teach us how to love and give, 
That like Jesus we may live ; 
Teach us how to die to sin, 
So that Christ may live within ; 
When our life's short day is past, 
May we rise with thee at last. 

An Easter Wish. 

(By four little girls.) 
First Girl. " May the glad dawn 

Of Easter morn 
Bring holy joy to thee." 

Second Girl. u May Easter day 

To thine heart say, 
* Christ died and rose for thee ! '" 
Third Girl. " May the calm eve 

Of Easter leave 
A peace divine with thee." 
Fourth Girl. " May Easter night 

On thine heart write, 
' O Christ, I live to thee ! ' "— Sel. 
Sing. Snowdrops ! lift your timid heads, 
All the earth is waking ; 
Field and forest, brown and dead, 

Into life are waking. 
Snowdrops, rise and tell the story, 
How he rose, the Lord of glory. 

Lilies ! lilies ! Easter calls ! 

Rise to meet the dawning 
Of the blessed light that falls 

Through the Easter morning ; 
Ring your bells and tell the story 
How he rose, the Lord of glory. 



EASTER HELPS. 1 35 

Waken, sleeping butterflies, 

Burst your narrow prison ! 
Spread your golden wings and rise, 

For the Lord is risen ! 
Spread your wings and tell the story 
How he rose, the Lord of glory. 
— Mary A. Lathbury, in Little Pilgrim Songs. 



An Alphabet of Texts. 

(For the littlest ones.) 

j\sk, and ye shall receive. — John 16. 24. 
Become as little children. — Matt. 18. 3. 
Christ shall give thee light. — Eph. 5. 14. 
Draw nigh to God. — -James 4. 8. 
Even a child is known by his doings. — Prov. 20. n. 
Follow thou me. — John 21. 22. 
(Jod is love. — 1 John 4. 16. 

He led them forth by the right way. — Psalm 107. 7. 
I am the good Shepherd. — John 10. 14. 
Jesus called a little child. — Matt. 18. 2. 
Keep the door of my lips. — Psalm 141. 3. 
Love one another. — John 4. 11. 
IVIy peace I give unto you. — John 14. 27. 
Now is the day of salvation. — 2 Cor. 6. 2. 
Obey your parents in the Lord. — Eph. 6. 1. 
Praise waiteth for thee, O God. — Psalm 65. 1. 
Quench not the Spirit. — I Thess. 5. 19. 
Renew a right spirit within me. — Psalm 51. 10. 
Suffer little children to come unto me. — Luke 18. 16. 
Thou art the guide of my youth. — Jer. 3. 4. 
Underneath are the everlasting arms. — Deut. 33. 27. 
Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. — I Cor. 15. 57. 
VValk in the light. — 1 John 1. 7. 
Yield yourselves unto the Lord. — 2 Chron. 30. 8. 
Zealous of good works. — Tit. 2. 14. 



136 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Recitation. 

(By little boy, holding bird's nest.) 
" Where is the little lark's nest 

My father showed to me ? 
And where the pretty lark's eggs ? " 

Said Master Lori Lee. 
At last he found the lark's nest, 

But eggs were none to see. 

" Why are you looking down there ? " 
Sang two young larks on high : 

" We've broke the shells that held us, 
And found a nest on high," 

And the happy birds went singing 
Far up the morning sky. — Sel. 

Easter Talk by Teacher. 

Recitation. 

(By three little girls.) 
First Girl (holding butterfly) : 

" I bring a golden butterfly 

A worm but yesterday. 
God gave it wings, and now I see 
It soar and soar away ! " 

Second Girl (holding lily) : 

"I bring a lily, pure and white, 

It had its root in earth ; 
But through the dark and clinging mold 
It struggled to its birth." 

Third Girl (holding bird's egg) : 

" I bring a dainty robin's egg, 

For, hidden out of sight, 
I know are lovely, silken wings 

To bear it in its flight." 



EASTER HELPS. 1 37 

Recitation. — "The Lord is Risen." 

" The Lord is risen," they said, 

" He walks with men to-day ; 
A crown of peace he wears, 
A gracious air he bears, 

We met him in the way." 

The Lord is risen indeed, 

Proclaim the news again ; 
Is the world awake 
To the words he spake, 

As fresh to-day as then ? 

The Lord is risen — our Christ ! 

He walks with men to-day. 
Sow ye good seed, 
Do a good deed, 

You'll meet him in the way. — 

Echo Prayer. 

(Asking help to walk with the risen Christ.) 

Easter Offering. 

Little envelopes may be given out a week or two before 
Easter, on which print " My Easter Gift." A little ceremony 
in taking the offering will make it more effective. If the 
class is small, let each child come forward and deposit his 
gift. If large, a march may be arranged, either with or 
without the singing of one of the giving songs. 

As each child deposits his gift, let him receive an Easter 
card or an Easter egg. 

Close with the singing of a glad Easter carol, and parting 
words : 

Teacher. — " Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of 
David, was raised from the dead." 

Class. — " Now is Christ risen from the dead." 



138 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

A Primary Class Catechism. 

1. Who is God ? Our Creator and our Father. 

2. Where is God ? God is everywhere. 

3. W T hat is God ? God is a Spirit. 

4. What has God put into each one of us ? A spirit. 

5. What is the spirit in us ? That which thinks a^d 
loves and lives. 

6. How long has God lived ? God has lived always. 

7. How long will he live ? Forever. 

8. Does God love you ? Yes, he loves me and everybody. 

9. Does God take care of you ? Yes, he takes care of me 
all the time. 

10. What else does he take care of? The birds and 
flowers, and all living things. 

11. What has God given you ? Everything I have. 

12. What are your eyes for? To see God's works. 

13. What are your ears for? To hear good words and 
sweet sounds. 

14. What is your voice for ? To sing sweet songs and to 
speak good words. 

15. What are your hands and feet for ? To use in all good 
work. 

16. Who gave you your home and friends ? The good 
God. 

17. What does God ask you to give to him ? My heart. 

18. What is it to give God the heart? To love him and to 
do as he says. 

19. What is God's best gift to us? Jesus. 

20. Who is Jesus ? The Son of God. 

21. What is Jesus to us ? Our Elder Brother. 

22. Why do we call him our Saviour ? Because he came to 
save us from our sins. 

23. What is sin ? Sin is a sickness of the soul. 

24. What will sin do for us ? It will kill our souls if we 
do not get cured. 

25. Who can cure us of sin? Only Jesus. 



EASTER HELPS. 1 39 

26. Why did God send Jesus to cure us? Because he 
loved us so much. 

27. How did Jesus come ? As a little child. 

28. What kind of a child was he? A holy child. 

29. What did he do when he became a man? He went 
about doing good. 

30. What did he say to the people? " Come unto me." 

31. What did he want to do for them? Cure their sin. 

32. I low did he call children to him? He said, "Suffer 
the little children to come unto me." 

33. What did he do for them? "He took them in his 
arms and blessed them." 

34. How long did Jesus stay on earth ? Thirty-three years. 

35. Why did Jesus die for us? It was the only cure for 
sin. 

36. How did he die? He was crucified. 

37. Who were the enemies of Jesus ? Wicked people who 
loved sin. 

38. What did he ask God to do ? To forgive his enemies. 

39. Does Jesus love you when you are naughty ? Yes, he 
loves me always. 

40. What does he hate? He hates sin. 

41 . What does he want to do ? To take it all away. 

42. How do we know that he can do this ? The Bible 
says so. 

43. How long did Jesus lie in the grave? He rose the 
third day. 

44. Where is Jesus now? He is in heaven and on earth. 

45. How is he on earth? By his Spirit. 

46. Where does the Holy Spirit live ? In hearts that love 
him. 

47. What does the Holy Spirit teach ? How to be like 
Jesus. 

48. When will we hear his voice ? When we listen for it. 

49. Is it always a comforting voice ? Xo, it is sometimes 
a reproving voice. 



140 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

50. Who will some day see God? " The pure in heart." 

51. How may a wicked heart be made pure? By letting 
the Holy Spirit live in it. 

52. Where will the good live forever ? In heaven. 

A Golden Chain of Twelve Links. 

" Thy kingdom come." 
" Come boldly unto the Throne of grace." 
" Grace, mercy, and peace from God." 
11 God is love." 
" Love the truth and peace." 
" Peace shall be upon Israel." 
" Israel shall be saved in the Lord." 
"Lord, I believe." 

" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." 

" Saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation." 

" Salvation is nigh to them that fear him." 

" Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 



The Commandments in Rhyme 

All worship be to God alone ; 
To graven image bow not down ; 
The name of God take not in vain ; 
God's holy day keep free from stain ; 
To parents be all honor paid ; 
Thou shalt not kill, the Lord has said ; 
From evil thoughts turn thou away; 
Thou shalt not steal, God still doth say ; 
In all thy speech let truth be heard, 
And covet not ; 'tis God's own word. 

A Motion Exercise. 

A little temple of the Lord, 

My ears be quick to hear his word, 

My eyes to see what I should do, 

My hands and feet to serve him too, 

My heart to be his very own 

Through grace of Jesus Christ, his Son. 

Recitation. 

What can make 

Pleasant weather? 
Little people, 

All together ; 
Let's join hands 

And hearts of love, 
Make our homes 

Like heaven above. — Sel. 



142 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Recitation for the New Year. 

(By a child holding a seashell.) 

My papa said to me one day, 

"If you will listen well, 
A little voice may speak to you 

Within the pearly shell." 

And so I said, " Dear little voice, 

This first day of the year, 
Speak while I listen, if you have 

Something for me to hear." 

I heard a little beach bird's song, 

The wind, the roaring sea ; 
At last I heard a little voice, 

I knew it was for me. 

" Be good, do good, be good, do good," 

Was all it seemed to say ; 
" Thank you," I said, " for your sweet words, 

To me on New Year's Dav." — From P. L. P. 



A Concert Recitation. 

Every sinful thought 

Shall be to judgment brought : 

Every wicked word 

Aloud in heaven is heard ; 

Every act we do 

We must account for, too ; 

Every hour we spend 

Comes nearer to the end ; 

Every passing breath 

Brings us nearer death ; 

Every holy prayer 

For heaven doth us prepare. — Set, 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. I43 

Old Year and New Year. 

Old Year and New Year — 
It is all God's year; 
His time for sowing, 

His time for reaping, 
His timv. for growing, 

For rest and quiet sleeping. 
New Year and Old Year, 

Their hoping, regretting, 
Will all turn to God's year, 

With no time for fretting. — SeL 

A Child's Creed. 
I believe in God my Father, 

And Jesus Christ his Son, 
And in the Holy Spirit, 

And that the three are One. — Sel. 

Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray : 
To know more clearly, 
To love more dearly, 
To follow more nearly, 
Every day. 

Recitation. — Heart Gardens. 

Kind hearts are the gardens, 

Kind thoughts are the roots, 
Kind words are the blossoms, 

Kind deeds are the fruits. 

Love is the sweet sunshine 

That warms into life ; 
For only in darkness 

Grow hatred and strife. 

Oh, care for the garden — 

Guard, guard it from weeds ; 
Fill, fill it with blossoms, 

Kind words and good deeds. — Sel. 



144 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Selections to Precede Opening Prayer. 

God is the Lord alone, 

To him be worship given ! 

The Lord of little hearts 

Is Lord of earth and heaven. 

Lord of the Sabbath, 

Help me to see 
What thou wilt have me 

To do and to be : 
Sabbath and week day 

Make me like thee. 

" Seek and find," Jesus saith, 
Hark ! the King of heaven 

Says to every heart to-day, 
" Ask, it shall be given." 

Unto the Saviour King, 

My prayer I will make ! 
Only one plea I bring, 

" For the dear Christ's sake ! " 

Blessed Holy Spirit, 
This my prayer, O hear it, 

Give thy light to me ! 
That thy truth forever 
I may seek, and never 

Turn away from thee ! 

Little ones may seek thee, Lord, 
Little hearts may love thy word ; 
Little feet may walk thy ways, 
Little lips may speak thy praise. 

I'll try upon God's holy day 
To turn aside from work and play, 
And learn what he would have me be, 
My loving Lord, who died for me ! 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. I45 

O Jesus, meek and mild, 
Hear thou a little child, 

Who speaks to thee ; 
Thy blessed grace within, 
A heart all free from sin, 

Give thou to me. 



A Scripture and Song Exercise 

Who loves little children? 

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." 

Sing. Jesus loves me, this I know, 
For the Bible tells me so ; 
Little ones to him belong, 
They are weak, but he is strong. 

Cho. Yes, Jesus loves me, etc. 

What did Jesus say about children ? 

"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God." 

Sing. What did our Lord and Saviour say. 

When others wished to drive them away ? 
" Suffer little children to come unto me, 
For of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

When should children come to Jesus ? 
" Behold, now is the day of salvation." 

Sing. " Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, 
Come to Jesus just now ; 
Just now come to Jesus, 
Come to Jesus just now. 

11 He will save you, he will save you, 

He will save you just now ; 

Just now he will save you, 

He will save vou just now." 
13 ' ' 



146 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

How may we know that Jesus will save us? 
He says, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast 
out." 

Sing. Jesus loves me, he who died, 
Heaven's gate to open wide ; 
He will wash away my sin, 
Let his little child come in. — Cho. 

How can sin be washed away ? 

"The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all 
sin." 

Sing. What can wash away my sin ? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus ; 
What can make me pure again? 
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

O, precious is the flow 
That makes we white as snow, 
No other fount I know, 
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

Why should everybody praise the Lord ? 

" O, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness." 

Sing. Praise him, praise him, all ye little children, 
He is love, he is love ; 
Praise him, praise him, all ye little children, 
He is love, he is love. 

Who is preparing a home for his little children ? 
Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions : I 
go to prepare a place for you." 

Sing. In that beautiful place he has gone to prepare, 
For all who are washed and forgiven ; 
And many dear children are gathering there, 
44 For of such is the kingdom of heaven." 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1 47 

Recitation. 

(By six little girls. The Scripture should be recited in con- 
cert, with appropriate motions.) 
First Girl. " Little hands, dear Lord, may be 
Lifted oft in prayer to thee." 
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." — 
Matt. 26. 41. 
Second Girl. " Little feet may swiftly go 

In the paths of peace below." 
" Guide our feet into the way of peace." — Luke 1. 79. 

Third Girl. " Little eyes may look above, 
Read the story of thy love." 
" Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord." — Psalm 25. 15. 

Fourth Girl. ' ' Little ears may learn to hear 

Jesus' voice, so sweet and clear." 
" Mine ears hast thou opened." — Psalm 40. 6. 

Fifth Girl. " Little lips may praise the Lord ; 
Little lips may speak his word." 
" I shall praise thee with joyful lips." — Psalm 63. 5. 

Sixth Girl. " Little hearts may be made new, 

Good, and right, and pure, and true." 
"A new heart also will I give you." — Eze. 36. 26. 

Recitation. 

(Before the offering.) 
Little children, come and bring 
Willing gifts to Christ, your King. 
Many offerings, though but small, 
Make a large one from you all. 
Of your pennies God hath need, 
Sinful, hungry souls to feed. 
Listen to his blessed word, 
Gladly share with Christ your Lord. — Sel. 



148 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

A Little Creed. 

I believe in God above ; 

I believe in Jesus' love; 

I believe his spirit, too, 

Comes to teach me what to do ; 

I believe that I must be 

True and good, dear Lord, like thee. 

Another. 

I believe in God, my Maker, 
And in my Saviour's love, 
And in his Holy Spirit, 
Who came down from above. 
I believe he loves me truly, 
And I should love him, too, 
And always try to please him, 
In all I say or do. 

Mission Band Exercise. 

(For a class of very little ones.) 

First Child. — In India the papas are very angry when a 
little girl is born, for there they do not know our loving Sav- 
iour, Jesus. 

Second Child. — In China the papas sometimes sell their dear 
little girl babies for forty cents apiece ; they would not be so 
cruel if they knew and loved Jesus. 

Third Child. — In this Christian land our papas love their 
little girls dearly, because they believe in the blessed Christ, 
who said, 

All Together. — Suffer little children, and forbid them not, 
to come unto me ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. 

First Child. — And this is meant for girls as well as for boys. 

All. — Let us all help send the Bible to the heathen. 

—Little Helpers. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. I49 

Harvest Missionary Song. 

1. The fields are all white, and the reapers are few ; 
We children are willing, but what can we do 

To work for our Lord in his harvest ? 

2. We'll work by our prayers, by the pennies we bring ; 
By small self-denials, the least little thing 

May work for our Lord in his harvest. 

3. Until, by and by, as the years pass at length, 
We, too, may be reapers, and go forth in strength 

To work for our Lord in his harvest. 

— In " Sacred Songs for Little Singers" 

Six Ways of Giving. 

(For a recitation by six little girls.) 

1. The Careless Way. — To give without knowing what 
it is for. 

2. The Impulsive Way. — To give only when some sad 
story is told. 

3. The Selfish Way. — To make money by fairs or festi- 
vals for missions. 

4. The Self-denying Way. — To do without something 
we would like, and give the money that we save. 

5. The Systematic Way. — To give a penny a day, or a 
certain share of all the money we get. 

6. The Equal Way. — To keep half of all the money I get, 
and give the other half for missions. — Sel. 

Recitation. 

Do good to the heathen who live in Japan, 

Do good to the dwellers in wide Hindostan, 

Do good to the isles of the sea if you can, 

Do good to them all on each foreign shore, 

But don't forget some who are close to your door. — Set. 



I50 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Mother's Jewels. 

What are Mother's Jewels, tell me? 

Are they rings and pins of gold ? 
And if so what are they good for ? 

I have never yet been told. 

Where does mother keep her jewels ? 

Are they very precious, say ? 
Does she lock them in her bureau ? 

Does she ever wear them, pray ? 

Can't you tell me what I ask you ? 

Did you say that I should guess ? 
And that I could surely find them, 

If I look into her face ? 

Well, I think her eyes do sparkle, 
When she looks up with a smile ; 

They are sweet and bright and pretty,. 
And they're shining all the while. 

Still you say she has more jewels? 

Well, I'll tell you what I guess : 
You have heard her call me "Jewel," 

When I get my morning kiss. 

Or you've heard her say of baby, 

When he laughs and crows and plays, 

(I have heard her say it often), 
" He's as good as gold to-day." 

So, if these are Mother's Jewels, 
We must try and keep them bright. 

I will tell my little brother, 

And we'll try with all our might, 

" You are Mother's Jewels also, 

And you must remember, too, 
That a jewel to be pretty 

Must be always bright as new." 

— Emma A. Dobbins. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 151 

Recitation. 

I'm only a little child, 

But mamma said one day 
The smallest hands some work can do, 

And the youngest heart can pray. 

And O, I am so glad 

To know that this is true, 
That God has in his harvest field 

Something that I can do ! 

Some little corner where 

My little hands may glean, 
So I may bring a golden sheaf 

When the grain is gathered in ! 

I'm only a little child, 

But Jesus died for me ; 
Lord, give me every day new grace, 

To work for love of thee. — -Mrs. Dana. 

Exercise for Mission Bands and Circles. 

Question. — What did Jesus say of God's will concerning 
children ? 

Answer. — " It is not the will of your Father which is in 
heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." — Matt. 
18. 14. 

Q. — What must we do that the ten million five hundred 
thousand young people may not perish ? 

A. — " The Gospel must first be published." — Mark 13. 10. 

Q. — What is the meaning of the word Gospel ? 

A.— " Good tidings."— Luke 8. 1. 

Q. — What must the ten million young people do themselves 
to secure eternal life ? 

A. — " Repent, and believe the Gospel." — Mark 1. 15. 

Q. — How can these youth believe on the Lord Jesus Christ ? 

A. — " By giving earnest heed to the things they have heard." 
— Heb. 2. 1. 



152 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Q. — What was Christ's command about spreading the Gos- 
pel? 

A. — " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
every creature." — Mark 16. 15. 

Q. — What does Paul say about our duty to the heathen ? 

A. — " How shall they believe in him of whom they have not 
heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? " — Rom. 
IO. 14. 

Q.— What did Christ tell us to teach ? 

A. — " Go and teach all nations, teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you." — Matt. 28. 19, 20. 

Q. — What do the missionaries teach the heathen? 

A. — " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." — Acts 16. 31. 

Q. — W T hat did Jesus say about the great work of saving 
souls ? 

A. — " The harvest truly is plenty, but the laborers are few." 
— Matt. 9. 31. 

Q. — What prayer did he tell us to offer for this work ? 

A. — " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth 
laborers into his harvest." — Matt. 9. 38. 

Q. — W T hat is the use of missionaries ? 

A. — "To preach the Gospel to the poor ; to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and to preach 
the acceptable year of the Lord." — Luke 4. 18, 19. 

Q. — What verse in the New Testament is often used as a 
plea for workers ? 

A. — "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they 
are white already to harvest." — John 4. 35. 

Q. — What is the answer of every true child of God when 
called upon to go as a missionary ? 

A. — " Here am I ; send me." — Isa. 6. 8. 

Q. — What is the object of the Mission Band ? 

A. — " To feed the hungry ; give drink to the thirsty ; kind- 
ness to the stranger ; clothing for the needy ; to visit those 
who are sick and in prison." — Matt. 25. 35, 36. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1 53 

Q. — How do we know from God's word that this ought to 
be the object of the Mission Band ? 

A. — " Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little 
ones a cup of cold water only, shall in no wise lose his re- 
ward." — Matt. 10. 42. 

Q. — How may we keep our circle full ? 

A. — " Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel 
them to come in." — Luke 14. 23. 

Q. — How shall we compel them? 

A. — "Be kind, tender-hearted, forbearing one another in 
love." — Eph. 4. 32, 2. 

Q. — What reward have we for being faithful ? 

A. — " To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure re- 
ward." — Prov. 11. 18. 

Q. — When may we reap our reward? 

A. — " Be not weary in welldoing : for in due season we shall 
reap, if we faint not." — Gal. 6. 9. 

Q. — What will Christ say to us in the last day ? 

A. — " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world." — Matt. 

25. 34- 

Q. — Is this promise to the old or to the young? 

A. — Christ says, " Suffer the little children to come unto 
me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God." 
— Mark 10. 14. 

Q. — How do we know that we are not to confine our work 
to our own community ? 

A. — " Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." — Isa. 32. 20. 

Q. — When are we to do our work ? 

A. — " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening with- 
hold not thy hand : for thou knowest not whether shall pros- 
per, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike 
good."— Eccles. 11. 6.— L. N. T. 



" To give is to live ; 
To deny is to die." 



154 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Concert Recitation. 

Loving Jesus, meek and mild, 
Look upon a little child ! 

Make me gentle as thou art, 
Come and live within my heart 

Take my childish hand in thine, 
Guide these little feet of mine. 

So shall all my happy days 

Sing their pleasant song of praise ; 

And the world shall always see 
Christ, the holy Child, in me ! 

. — From Charles Wesley. 

Recitation for Christmas. 

O, the merry Christmas times, 
Merry voices, merry chimes, 
Merry music in the air, 
Merry sunshine everywhere ; 
Stockings crammed from top to toe, 
Trees with tapers all aglow ; 

Aunts and cousins 

Come by dozens, 
Making merry Christmas, O ! 

O, the blessed Christmas Day, 
What a jolly time for play ; 
Santa brings such lovely toys, 
Dolls for girls, and blocks for boys, 
Candies, books, and cars that go ; 
And beneath the mistletoe 

Aunts and cousins 

March by dozens 
To the Christmas dinner, O ! 

— Mrs. S. J. Brigham. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1$$ 

Recitation. 

The fields are white to the harvest, 

And the laborers are few ; 
Dear child, 'tis the Saviour calling 

To little ones just like you. 
Don't think it beyond your power 

To follow the Lord's commands, 
The sweetest work for the Master 

Is done by the children's hands. 

Would you know the delight of living, 

A delight without alloy — 
An all-the-year- round Thanksgiving, 

A heart overrun with joy? 
Then come, and your places, children, 

As dear little gleaners take ; 
Come, work to-day in the vineyard, 

And do it for Jesus' sake. — Mrs. Dana. 



A Recitation for Christmas. 

'Twas Christmas week : the wintry light 
Faded to darkness^ dull and drear ; 

" These are," I said, half to myself, 
" The shortest days in all the year." 

Across our darling's childish face 

Passed the quick shadow of a thought, 

Then suddenly she brightly smiled, 

As though she found the things she sought. 

And said, " I know the reason why •, 
It's 'cause the little girls like me 

Wish it was Christmas ; so the Lord 

Makes the days shorter purposely ! " — Set. 



156 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Responsive Exercise. 

Do you hear those voices sound ? 
List ! the temple courts resound ! 
Hark ! a thousand children sing, 
" David's Son, the children's King." 

See them fill the courts, a throng — 
Vainly priests forbid their song. 
" Hail ! all hail ! " they shout and sing. 
" David's Son, the children's King." 

Sacred walls repeat the strain, 
Loud hosannas, glad refrain ! 
Jesus hears no sweeter thing, 
" David's Son, the children's King." 

Let the chorus still prolong ; 
Jesus Christ approves the song ; 
" Perfect praise " the children bring, 
" David's Son, the children's King." 

—Dr. E. T. Cassel 

A Christmas Recitation. 

In a manger lying low, 

O, so very long ago, 

Shepherds coming from afar, 

Following a moving star, 

Found the Christ-child, fair and sweet, 

And they kissed his little feet. 

To that manger, rough and old, 
Wise men brought their gifts of gold, 
And adored him with glad voice, 
Saying, " He is come ; rejoice !" 
And white angels, wondrous fair, 
Watched about the infant there. — Sel. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1 5/ 

The Friends of Jesus. 

Of all the twelve apostles 

The gospels give the names ; 
First, Andrew, John, and Peter, 

Bartholomew and James ; 
Matthew and Simon, Thomas, 

Were friends both tried and true ; 
Then Philip, James, and Lebbaeus, 

And the traitor Judas, too. — Sel. 

Specimen Blackboard Lessons. 

[Sometimes the thought of the lesson may be impressed by 
a rhyme. A few specimens of general application are given. 
Print with colored crayons, using pictures for the Italicized 
words :] 

1. My hands, my feet, my head, my heart, 
Are of God's temple each a part. 

He guards its gates by night, by day, 
To keep the serpent sin away. 

2. Bud and blossom and leaf and fruit, 
Droop and die with a zvorm at the root ; 
Sin in the heart of a child or king 

A storm of trouble will surely bring. 

3. Little soldiers, going to battle, 
Choose your Captain, choose to-day ; 
Take your shield, your sword, your colors, 
Slay all evil in the way. 

4. The altar and the holy flame, 

Our eyes may see, our hearts may claim, 
Since Christ, our prophet, priest, and king, 
Hears every humble prayer we bring. 

5. Little soldier, take God's word, 
Use it as a sharp-edged sword, 
Wear it as a shield from sin, 
Till the crown of life you win. 



158 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Order of Service. No. 1. 

[Strike the bell softly three times. At once begin to repeat, 
children following :] 

The bell has struck its one, two, three, 
" Be still ! " is what it says to me, 
For this is God's most holy day, 
And I am here to learn his way ; 
So now, with all my heart, I'll seek 
To hear the words that he will speak. 

Teacher. The Lord is in his holy temple. 
Class. Let all the earth keep silence before him. 

[All fold hands and bow heads.] 
T. Dear Lord, bless our Sunday school to-day. 
C. Amen. 

T. This is the day which the Lord hath made. 
C. We will rejoice and be glad in it. 
Singing. " Praise him, praise him, all ye little children." 
103, Little Pilgrim Songs. 
Whisper Prayer. 

Lord, help me when I try to pray, 

Not only mind the words I say, 

But may I try, with watchful care, 

To have my heart go with my prayer. 
Prayer. [All joining in Lord's Prayer at the close.] 
Singing. gt Little Soldiers." 63, Melodies for Little People, 
Apostles* Creed. 

Teacher. What does our Lord say about giving ? 
Class. " It is more blessed to give than to receive." 
T. What kind of a giver does the Lord love ? 
C. " The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." 

Concert Recitation. 

We bring our gifts to Jesus, 
And lay them at his feet ; 
O, give them, Lord, some work to do, 
Some holy service sweet ; 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1 59 

Our hearts, our lives, our offerings take, 
And bless them for our Saviour's sake. 

Offerings. 

Singing. " Hear the pennies dropping." 

Birthday Gifts. 

Concert Prayer. 

Father, fill our days 
With thy love and praise ; 
Then our years shall be 
Given ail to thee. 

Motion Exercise. 

Take my hands, dear Jesus, [Hands outstretched?] 

Let them work for thee ; 
Never let them idle, \_Drop hands. ] 

Or in mischief be ; 
Let me lift them humbly [Lift hands.~\ 

As thy grace I seek, 
Let me fold them softly [Fold hands.] 

As thy name I speak. 

Lesson Taught. 
Echo Prayer. 

Closing Hymn. "Hear us, O Lord." 15, Melodies for 
Little People. 

Teacher. " Little children, love one another." 
Dismissal. 

Order of Service. No. 2. 

Concert Recitation. 

Safely through another week 

God has brought us on our way ; 
Let us now a blessing seek, 

Waiting in his courts to-day, 
Day of all the week the best, 
Emblem of eternal rest. 



l60 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Teacher. Lord, open thou our lips ; 
Class. And our mouth shall show forth thy praise. 
Praise Song. "We praise thee, O God." 
Teacher. Come, let us worship and bow down. 
Class. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. 
Whisper Prayer. 

Before my words of prayer are said, 
I'll close my eyes and bow my head ; 
I'll try to think to whom I pray, 
And try to mean the words I say. 

Prayer. 

Motion Song. 66, Melodies for Little People. 

Concert Recitation. 

Small are the gifts that we can bring, 

But thou hast taught us, Lord, 
If given for the Saviour's sake, 
They lose not their reward. 

Offerings. " Give, said the little stream." 

Responsive Exercise. 

Teacher. For life, and health, and happy days, 

Class. We praise our loving Lord ; 

T. For love that leads in wisdom's ways, 

C. We praise our loving Lord ; 

T. For this dear friend, so kind and true, 

C. We praise our loving Lord ; 

T. That she may know and serve thee, too, 

C. We pray our loving Lord. 

Birthday Gifts. 

Pirst Psalm. 

Pes son Taught. 

Echo Prayer. 

Singing. 

Teacher. The Lord watch between thee and me, 

Class. W T hen we are absent one from the other. 

Dismissal. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. i6l 

Order of Service. No. 3. 

Singing. "Little children, praise the Lord." Cook's 
Primary Songs. 

Teacher. Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion. 

Class. Unto thee shall all flesh come. 

T. Serve the Lord with gladness. 

C. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving. 

Responsive Exercise. 

Teacher. For air and sunshine, pure and sweet, 
Class. We thank our heavenly Father; 

T. For grass that grows beneath our feet, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For flowers that all around us bloom, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For birds that sing in joyful tune, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For leafy trees, with fruit and shade, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For things of beauty he has made, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For daily blessings, full and free, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For all his care o'er you and me, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For Jesus Christ, the children's Friend, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father ; 

T. For life in him that knows no end, 

C. We thank our heavenly Father. 

Words about Prayer. 

Teacher. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. 
Class. Call ye upon him while he is near. 
All. Thy face, Lord, will I seek. 
Prayer. 

Singing. "Something for the Lord." 105, Melodies for 
Little People. 
Offerings. 
11 



1 62 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Concert Recitation. 

Let all my days 
Be full of praise ; 
Let all my years 
Be free from fears ; 
Let all I have 

Be truly thine, 
Then, blessed Lord, 
Thou wilt be mine ! 
Birthday Gifts. 

The Children s Creed. " I believe in God the Father.** 
Said or sung. 

Quieting Exercise. 

We will all rise up together, 
We will all sit down together, 
We will mind the rule of the Sunday school. 
And all rise up together. 

We will raise our hands together, 
We will fold our arms together, 
We will mind the rule of the Sunday school. 
And all sit down together. 

We will sit up straight together, 
We will place our feet together, 
We will mind the rule of the Sunday school, 
And all keep still together. 

Lesson Taught. 
Echo Prayer. 

Closing Hymn. " God be with you till we meet again." 
Teacher s Parting Words. Little children, keep your- 
selves from idols. 
Dismissal 

Order of Service. No. 4. 

Teacher. I was glad when they said into me, 
Class. Let us go into the house of the Lord. 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 163 

T. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. 
C. They will be still praising thee. 
Whisper Prayer. 

Look, dear Lord, upon thy children, 

Hear us as we try to pray ; 
Fill our hearts with peace and gladness, 
On this holy Sabbath day. 
Praise Song. "Why not I ? " 81, Melodies for Little 
People. 

Twenty-third Psalm. 

Teacher. Who watcheth o'er us day by day ? 

Class. God, our heavenly Father ; 

T. Who heareth little children pray ? 

C. God, our heavenly Father. 

Prayer. 

Singing. 

Concert Recitation. 

We'll work by our prayers, by the pennies we bring, 
By small self-denials ; the least little thing 
May work for our Lord in his harvest. 

Offerings. 

Birthday Gifts, preceded by Recitation. 

Little minutes make the hours, 

Hours grow into days, 
Days climb up into the years, 

Glad with happy praise ; 
All the days and all the years 

God to us hath given, 
If we give them back to him 

He will give us heaven. 

Motion Exercise. 

" Two little eyes to look to God, 

Two little ears to hear his word, 

One little tongue to speak his truth, 

One heart to give to him now in my youth, 



164 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

Two little feet to walk in his ways, 

Two hands to work for him all my days ; 

Take them, dear Jesus, and let them be 

Always obedient and true to thee." 
Lesson Taught. 
Echo Prayer. 

Closing Hymn. 67, Melodic s for Little People. 
Teacher. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. 
Class. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee. 
T. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give 
thee peace. 
Dismissal. 

Order of Service. No. 5. 

Teacher. What is God's word about the Sabbath ? 

Class. " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 

T. What is God's word about Jesus? 

C. " Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." 

T. What did Jesus say about little children ? 

C. " Suffer little children to come unto me." 

Concert Recitation. 

I am glad my blessed Saviour 

Was once a child like me, 
To show how pure and holy 

His little ones might be; 
And if I try to follow 

His footsteps here below, 
He never will forget me, 
Because he loves me so. 
Singing. 

Teacher. Unto thee will I lift up mine eyes, 
Class. O thou that dwellest in the heavens. 
Whisper Prayer. 

Thou, O Lord, art King of heaven, 

Yet a little child may come, 
Bring thee love, and praise, and worship, 
Find within thy heart a home, 



MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 1 65 

Prayer. [All joining in the Lord's Prayer.] 

Singing. 

Recitation of Golden Texts, Psalm, or Catechism. 

Singing. " Penny Song," or class recitation. 

Now while we are little, 
Pennies are our store, 

But when we are older, 
Lord, we'll give thee more. 
Offerings. . 

Review, and Golden Text. 
Alotion Song or Exercise. 
Lesson Teaching. 
Echo Prayer. 
Singing. 
Closing Sentences. 

Teacher. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, 
Class. And bless the Lord, 

T. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of 
Zion. 

Mizpah. 

Order of Service. No. 6. 

Teacher. Praise ye the Lord. 

Class. Sing unto the Lord a new song. 

T. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 

C. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. 

Concert Prayer. 

Our Father in heaven, 

Revered be thy name ; 
May thy sacred kingdom 

Be always the same ; 
O give, we beseech thee, 

Our sweet daily bread, 
For 'tis by thy kindness 

That all will be fed. 



1 66 THE PRIMARY TEACHER. 

O, may we be pardoned 

Each folly and sin, 
May we through forgiveness 

Let love enter in ; 
Keep us from temptation, 

From weakness of men ; 
Let this be our prayer, 

O Lord, to the end. 

Singing. Creed or Song {Songs for Little Folks, page 52). 
Review and Golden Text. 

Teacher. Whom should we love best of all ? 

Class. The Lord our God. 

T. And whom next? 

C. Our neighbor. 

T. What is the Golden Rule ? 

C. " Do to others as you would have others do to you." 

T. W T hat did Jesus say about giving? 

C. "It is moi'e blessed to give than to receive." 

Offerings. 
Recitation. 

Gladly now our gifts we bring 

To our holy Saviour King ; 

Bless them, Lord, and let them be 

Silent messengers for thee. 

Psalm , Catechism, or Golden Texts. 

Motion Song. 

Lesson Teaching. 

Echo Prayer. 

Singing. 

Teacher. The Lord is my light and my salvation. 
Class. Whom shall I fear? 
T. The Lord is the strength of my life. 
C. Of whom shall I be afraid ? 

T. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the 
days of my life. 



